Middle East studies in the News

Bid to Deny Tenure to Barnard Prof [on Nadia Abu El-Haj]

Jewish Telegraphic Agency
August 13, 2007

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/103596.html

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3866

More than 800 people have signed a petition seeking to deny tenure to a Barnard College professor accused of shoddy scholarship and a pro-Palestinian agenda.

Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj, an assistant professor of anthropology, is under from her book "Facts on the Ground." The book attacks the field of Israeli archaeology, arguing that it has produced knowledge central to the creation of Israel's foundational myths and therefore is complicit in Israel's supposed crimes against the Palestinians.

Paula Stern, a 1982 Barnard graduate and the organizer of an online petition calling on the college to deny tenure to El-Haj, claims the professor's scholarship is shoddy and her claims unsubstantiated.

"We are embarrassed that Columbia would consider granting tenure to a scholar who is so patently ignorant about the subject of her only book," the petition reads.

Neither Barnard nor its institutional parent, Columbia University, would confirm the status of El-Haj's tenure application.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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