Israel Matzav

Boycott Israel, boycott you?

Will its endorsement of BDS and boycott of Israeli universities cause the American Studies Association to find itself the subject of a boycott? I wouldn't call it a trend yet, but Professor Jacobson reports that Penn State Harrisburg has decided to drop its institutional membership in the ASA, and former Harvard President Lawrence Summers has called for an end to university funding for participation in the ASA's events.

Penn State Harrisburg will be dropping its institutional membership.

That message was conveyed to me by Dr. Simon J. Bronner, who Chairs the American Studies Department, which has the only Ph.D program in American Studies in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Bronner is a prominent member of the ASA, in 2011 becoming Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of American Studies, a publication sponsored by the ASA.

Dr. Bronner has been an opponent of the resolution, having signed a letter in November opposing the resolution along with many other members including 7 Past Presidents of the ASA.  Dr. Bronner has spoken out about the damage the resolution would do to academic freedom.

Dr. Bronner provided me with the following statement:

In the wake of the passage of the resolution by the ASA to boycott Israeli institutions, which programs and departments such as Penn State Harrisburg’s program in American Studies consider to curtail academic freedom and undermine the reputation of American Studies as a scholarly enterprise, the chair of the American Studies program at Penn State Harrisburg plans to drop its institutional membership and will encourage others to do so.

...

A much tougher fight may be to convince University Presidents to heed the call of former Harvard President Lawrence Summers to curtail financial support for participation in ASA events.

Maybe the University of Haifa would like to join the ASA.... They'd fit right in with the zeitgeist. But they can't join because they're still in Israel.....

Labels: academic boycott, BDS, Israel's suicidal Left, liberal academia, University of Haifa

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:33 AM