Response to:
Scholars Ask to Have Their Names Added to 'Professor Watchlist'
by Sondra Hale and Lisa Rofel
California Scholars for Academic Freedom
February 21, 2017
Categories:
False allegations of suppressing free speech
Falsely alleged connection to David Horowitz
Misc. Corrections
False allegations of connections to other organizations
Original text from Scholars Ask to Have Their Names Added to 'Professor Watchlist':
The newly inaugurated U.S. administration has created an atmosphere of violence, racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. A less discussed aspect of these attacks is on academic freedom. The 2016 election has taken to new extremes the threats to academic freedom. We can see a preview of what this administration intends in their response to the recent cancellations of "talks" by professional provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who engages in public, cruel harassment of students who are critical of his extremist views, from the lectern through trigger cameras that project students' images without their consent. He then proceeds to taunt them and incite actions against them on the basis of their physical appearance, race, sexuality, and gender. Instead of condemning this kind of incitement, President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from UC Berkeley after Yiannopoulos' "talk" was cancelled at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses.
We can also see indications of things to come in the lack of condemnation – hence tacit permission – of attacks by the Horowitz so-called Freedom Center on certain University of California campuses for considering establishing themselves as a set of sanctuary campuses. The recent Executive Order in the form of a travel ban on people coming from seven Muslim majority countries (still in the courts) has ensnared students, faculty and visiting scholars who have had their academic lives and careers put into jeopardy as a result of the proposed ban. The absence of international scholars from large parts of the Middle East would severely affect the quality and reach of our educational institutions. Similarly, the anti-immigration bashing and the threat to build a wall with Mexico puts the important DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) in jeopardy, directly threatening our undocumented college students. The politically motivated attacks on research scientists working on climate change and fetal tissue research are further indications of a political climate intent on thoroughly trampling over academic freedom.
Furthermore, with regard to academic freedom and free speech, a legislator in the state of Arizona tried to prohibit "state institutions from offering any class or activity that promotes "division, resentment or social justice toward a race, gender, religion, political affiliation, social class or other class of people." In other words, discussion of social justice should not be part of the educational curriculum. While this bill died before it reached a vote, Arizona already bans the teaching of ethnic studies in K-12 education, a law that is being challenged in court. We can expect to see more of these attempts to limit academic freedom in the coming four years. These initiatives are important for us to know and attempt to counteract. These are very direct interventions in our campus lives, potentially putting a chill on our educational atmosphere and affecting academic freedom.
A recently formed "Professor Watchlist" purports to alert students about professors they claim "advance a radical agenda in lecture halls." This watchlist echoes Horowitz's project, Campus Watch. The latter lists both faculty and students, threatening the latter with slanderous public information for use by prospective employers and the former with threats of violence. The Professor Watchlist names numerous professors from California institutions of higher learning. In response to the Professor Watchlist, faculty from throughout California, at public and private universities, have followed the lead of faculty at the University of Notre Dame, in sending the Professor Watchlist our names to be added to their list. We refuse to be intimidated by such harassment tactics.
Below is a letter we are sending to Professor Watchlist:
We, the undersigned faculty in various universities and colleges in California, write to request that you place our names, all of them, on Professor Watchlist.
We make this request because we note that you currently list on your site several of our California colleagues, such as Professors Bettina Aptheker, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Melina Abdullah, Hatem Bazian and some 20 others, whose work is distinguished by its commitment to reasoned, fact-based civil discourse examining questions of tolerance, equality, and justice. We further note that nearly all faculty colleagues at other institutions listed on your site, the philosophers, historians, theologians, ethicists, feminists, rhetoricians, and others, have similarly devoted their professional lives to the unyielding pursuit of truth, to the critical examination of assumptions that underlie social and political policy, and to honoring this country's commitments to the premise that all people are created equal and deserving of respect.
This is the sort of company we wish to keep.
We surmise that the purpose of your list is to shame and silence faculty who espouse ideas you reject. But your list has had a different effect upon us. We are coming forward to stand with the professors you have called "dangerous," reaffirming our values and recommitting ourselves to the work of teaching students to think clearly, independently, and fearlessly.
So please add our names, the undersigned faculty from California institutions, many of whom belong to California Scholars for Academic Freedom, to the Professor Watchlist. We wish to be counted among those you are watching.
Most sincerely,
Ece Algan, Director Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies California State University at San Bernardino
Richard P. Appelbaum Distinguished Research Professor Sociology and Global Studies University of California, Santa Barbara
Paola Bacchetta Department of Gender and Women's Studies University of California, Berkeley
Carole H. Browner Distinguished Research Professor Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Anthropology, and Gender Studies University of California, Los Angeles
Edmund Burke, III Professor Department of History University of California, Santa Cruz
Lara Deeb Anthropology Scripps College
Julia Elyachar Anthropology and Economics University of California, Irvine
Richard Falk Fellow, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies University of California, Santa Barbara Former Special Rapporteur, UN Human Rights Council
Aranye Fradenburg Professor, Department of English University of California, Santa Barbara
Margaret Ferguson Distinguished Professor of English University of California at Davis
Mayanthi L. Fernando Associate Professor of Anthropology Department of Anthropology University of California, Santa Cruz
Gary Fields Associate Professor, Department of Communications UC San Diego
Prof. Claudio Fogu Associate Professor of Italian Studies Department of French and Italian University of California Santa Barbara
Manzar Foroohar History Professor Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Nancy Gallagher Professor, History Department University of California, Santa Barbara
Jess Ghannam Department of Psychiatry, and Global Health Sciences University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine
Bishnupriya Ghosh Department of English University of California, Santa Barbara
Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, Professor Department of Women's Studies Advisory Board: Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies Center for Asia and Pacific Studies Institute for Security and Conflict Resolution San Diego State University
Deborah Gould Associate Professor of Sociology UCSC
Larry Gross Professor School of Communication Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California
Sondra Hale Anthropology and Gender Studies University of California, Los Angeles
Gail Hershatter Distinguished Professor of History History Department University of California, Santa Cruz
Ivan Huber, PhD Professor Emeritus of Biology Fairleigh Dickinson University Madison, NJ Member, California Scholars for Academic Freedom
Suad Joseph Distinguished Research Professor Anthropology Department University of California, Davis
Zayn Kassam John Knox McLean Professor of Religious Studies Pomona College
Katherine King Professor, Comparative Literature University of California, Los Angeles
David Klein Professor of Mathematics California State University Northridge
Dennis Kortheuer Dept. of History, emeritus Cal State Long Beach
Mark LeVine History Department University of California, Irvine
Esther Lezra Associate Professor Global Studies Feminist Studies and Comparative Literature Affiliate University of California, Santa Barbara
David Lloyd Distinguished Professor of English Department of English University of California, Riverside
Pardis Mahdavi, PhD Dean of Women Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology Pomona College
Amina Mama Professor, Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies One Shields Ave, University of California Davis, CA 95616
Andrew Mathews Anthropology Department University of California, Santa Cruz
Flagg Miller Professor of Religious Studies The University of California, Davis
Minoo Moallem Professor, Department of Gender and Women's Studies University of California, Berkeley
Helene Moglen Professor, Literature University of California Santa Cruz
Kathleen Moore Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies UC Santa Barbara
Patricia Morton Editor, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Associate Professor, Art History Department University of California, Riverside
David Palumbo-Liu Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Comparative Literature Stanford University
David Naguib Pellow Dehlsen Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies University of California, Santa Barbara
Noam Perry Department of Justice Studies Institution: San Jose State University
Ismail Poonawala Professor of Arabic & Islamic Studies UCLA
James Quesada Professor & Chair Department of Anthropology San Francisco State University
Nasrin Rahimieh Howard Baskerville Professor in Humanities Chair, Department of Comparative Literature University of California, Irvine
Rush Rehm Professor, Theater and Performance Studies, and Classics Artistic Director, Stanford Repertory Theater (SRT) Stanford University
Craig Reinarman Research Professor and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Legal Studies University of California, Santa Cruz
Dwight Reynolds, Professor Dept of Religious Studies University of California, Santa Barbara
William I. Robinson Professor of Sociology and Global and International Studies University of California-Santa Barbara
Robyn Magalit Rodriguez Associate Professor, Asian American Studies UC Davis
Lisa Rofel Department of Anthropology University of California, Santa Cruz
Parama Roy Professor of English University of California, Davis
Danilyn Rutherford Anthropology Department University of California, Santa Cruz
Jeffrey Sacks Associate Professor Department of Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside
Sang Hea Kil, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Justice Studies San José State University
Vida Samiian Professor of Linguistics California State University, Fresno
Bhaskar Sarkar Film and Media Studies University of California, Santa Barbara
Susan Slyomovics Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures University of California, Los Angeles
Elizabeth Stephens Art Department UC, Santa Cruz
Judith Stevenson, Emerita Phd Anthropology Peace and Social Justice Program Department of Human Development California State University, Long Beach
Baki Tezcan Associate Professor of History University of California, Davis
Howard Winant Distinguished Professor of Sociology University of California, Santa Barbara
Stephen Zunes Professor of Politics University of San Francisco |