Issue: Conflict on CampusRSS feed

Members of the Alliance for Academic Freedom (AAF) were instrumental in defeating two proposed resolutions at the business meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020; they were sponsored by a group called “Historians for Peace and Democracy.”  Though these resolutions on alleged infringements of academic freedom by Israel (posted here) fell […]

Initially, a factually flawed article in the NY Times alarmed our Third Narrative discussion group by reporting that the Trump administration’s new executive order was redefining Jewishness in “national” or even “racial” terms.  The actual text of the “Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism” does not do that however.   Two of our Third Narrative colleagues are in […]

This is a message from our colleague, Prof. Cary R. Nelson: A video that AAF and AMEINU have sponsored records personal testimonies of students and faculty from the US who have experienced personal attacks from BDS-allied colleagues and students.  The quality of the filming is high and the stories are compelling.  Please share it widely.  We have […]

The following is my response to Batya Ungar-Sargon’s original article in The Forward; my piece was published as a letter to the editor: Forty-eight years ago, as a first-year student at Bard College, I saw graffito in a bathroom stall: “If I didn’t believe it with my own mind, I never would have seen it.” I saw affirmations […]

AAF Expresses Concern Regarding U.S. Department of Education Letter to Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies The Alliance for Academic Freedom remains concerned about the chilling effect on academic freedom of the letter that the U.S. Department of Education sent to the Duke-University of North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies on August 29 and about […]

In addition to “Don’t Be ‘Useful Idiots’ for BDS” by Michael Walzer, this post is a further followup to “Summer of Defeats for Academic BDS.”  It is by Steven B. Smith, the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science at Yale University.  Both Professors Walzer and Smith spoke against a proposal considered and defeated by the Foundations of Political Theory […]

This is a followup to “Summer of Defeats for Academic BDS.” This short talk was my contribution to the debate at the Foundations of Political Theory section of the American Political Science Association which defeated a proposal for boycotting Israeli institutions of higher learning:           I was glad to hear from a speaker earlier this evening […]