Today Real Clear Politics published an article commissioned by Campus Watch and written by David White. “Juan Cole and Yale: The Inside Story,” relies on interviews with professors familiar with the proceedings that led Yale to deny Cole, who teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan, a position there. Professors currently at Yale, and some who’ve taught there in the past, made clear that Cole was turned down in spite of what one Yale history professor charged was a “rigged” process that, Cole’s allies hoped, would clear the way for his move to New Haven. White’s article also makes clear that Yale found Cole’s scholarship wanting. His blog, in the words of Yale political scientist Steven Smith, “allowed us to see something about the quality of his mind.” Indeed.
Winfield Myers is managing editor of the Middle East Forum and director of its Campus Watch project, which reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities. He has taught world history and other topics at the University of Michigan, the University of Georgia, Tulane, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He was previously managing editor of The American Enterprise magazine and CEO of Democracy Project, Inc., which he co-founded. Mr. Myers has served as senior editor and communications director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and is principal author and editor of a college guide, Choosing the Right College (1998, 2001). He was educated at the University of Georgia, Tulane, and the University of Michigan.
