American Studies

The American Studies Association recently passed a resolution that "endorses and … honor[s] the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions."  It was unanimous, which is precisely what you'd expect from this pack of nit-wits.  (Story here: Boycott of Israeli universities: A repugnant attack on academic freedom)

American Studies has always been a junk college major, like "studies" majors generally -- gender studies, black studies, hispanic studies, GLBT studies, etc.  (For any innocents out there, GLBT = Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender.)  On campus, these programs and majors comprise a sort of student-faculty academic ghetto. Courses in research methods and statistics are almost never required, so they provide a politically correct sheltered workshop for innumerate students, and a haven for faculty who are overwhelmingly far-left race-class-gender "activists."  Were it not so destructive, the entire scene would be simply farcical.

For an excellent introduction to what these programs amount to, the sort of people who staff them, the amount of power and influence they've managed to acquire on campuses, and the incredible damage they can do, see Stuart Taylor Jr. and K C Johnson, "Until Proven Innocent : Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case," St. Martin's Press, 2007.  Highly recommended, and deeply disturbing.


Below via Instapundit:

AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION UPDATE: Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is ASA.

    Can you imagine twenty serious scholars in any discipline voting unanimously on any controversial issue? I can’t, so I thought it worthwhile to examine the composition of the ASA’s National Council and to peruse its members’ academic profiles, as described on the webpages of their home institutions. This simple exercise reveals a stunning lack of diversity of intellectual interests and perspectives in a sector of American society, the university, that explicitly places a very high premium on “diversity.” The apparent obsession with gender, gay and race studies (or of U.S. imperialism) among the members of ASA’s National Council seems to come at the expense of scholarship on just about everything else.

It was considered a lightweight major back when I was in school, and it’s undoubtedly gotten worse since then.

Related: Wesleyan U. President: Boycott of Israeli universities: A repugnant attack on academic freedom.

Also: Boston U. President rejects Israel academic boycott.

Plus: Andrew Klavan: Anti-Semitic Stalinist Eunuchs.

I think the proper response is for universities to refuse to fund attendance at ASA events, or purchase of ASA publications.


Byron