Holocaust inversion, casting Israelis as Nazis and Palestinians as their Jewish victims, finds advocates on the faculty of Columbia University.
Tag: Joseph Massad
An extreme case at Columbia
It's now up to Columbia's trustees to say what all the world south of 116th Street knows perfectly well: Joseph Massad does Columbia no credit. Back in 2005, Columbia's faculty radicals, anticipating this moment, wrote a statement in favor of academic freedom, in which they tried to invalidate the statutory authority of the trustees to …
Columbia set to crash
The New York Post features an article by Jacob Gershman on the Joseph Massad tenure case at Columbia. I highly recommend it. Gershman covered this story for the now-defunct New York Sun, and he knows all the ins and outs. Gershman reports that Massad's file has already passed muster with President Lee Bollinger, and will …
Too late to stop Massad?
Isn't it too late to stop tenure for Joseph Massad? This question has been posed to me by a reader, in light of the claim by Massad (via the Angry Arab) that he's already been tenured. There's no way for someone outside the system to know for certain where the process stands. But we do …
Massad’s alcohol analysis
If you were a secular, liberal Palestinian intellectual (and perhaps a Christian to boot) living in the West Bank, would you have forebodings about Hamas coming to power? You might, and with good reason. Edward Said agonized over the Hamas problem, before reaching this conclusion: "For any secular intellectual to make a devil's pact with …
The hypocrisy of Massad
Yesterday, I invited Columbia's president and trustees to look more closely at Joseph Massad's book Desiring Arabs, which Harvard University Press provisionally accepted as a proposal and later rejected as a completed manuscript. This is not Massad's only recent publishing accident. The president and trustees might also take a closer look at why the College …
More Massad mystery at Harvard
In August 2006, I wrote a post entitled "Massad mystery at Harvard." There I asked why, for two years, Joseph Massad described his book Desiring Arabs as "forthcoming from Harvard University Press," only to announce that it would be published by the University of Chicago Press. I wrote the following: Last spring [2006], Columbia promoted …
Tenure for Joseph Massad?
There are reports that Columbia University has tenured the rabid Joseph Massad. At least this is what Massad, now in Cairo, has told his friends. I've written my response to such a development, but I won't post it until Columbia confesses to the crime. As of this moment, no one in the administration is confirming, …
Muftis of Morningside Heights
Martin Kramer re-ups an earlier post, on the way Palestinian belief in Jewish "cowardice" sets up Palestinian failure, from 1948 to today.
Massad mystery at Harvard
Joseph Massad, the student-abusing extremist who's left an indelible stain on Columbia, is back from leave to teach this semester. According to Massad, this is to be a banner year for him: in the spring, the University of Chicago Press will publish his new book, Desiring Arabs. Wait a minute... Just last year, Massad told …
Martyrs get tenure at Columbia?
Yesterday the press reported that Columbia University has promoted Joseph Massad to associate professor. Massad, a Palestinian extremist and protégé of the late Edward Said, was the prime culprit in last year's student abuse scandal. His most famous contribution to the store of human knowledge is his ingenious discovery that Zionism isn't just racism, it's …
MESA jumps in Massad’s trench
You remember Joseph Massad (how could you not?), the assistant professor who's been at the heart of Columbia's Middle Eastern studies scandal. Last spring, a university panel investigated allegations that he intimidated a student over her politics. Massad denied it, but the panel found the student credible, and a cloud hangs over his tenure prospects. …
Joseph Massad: orientalist!
Last week, I brought this quote from Columbia University student-abuser Joseph Massad, regarding his book Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan: "The only unfavorable review, out of seventeen favorable reviews, it received was in Martin Kramer’s unscholarly magazine, Middle East Quarterly." So I reproduced that review, which happened to have been written …
Who threatens Columbia?
In Professor Joseph Massad's mid-March statement to the ad hoc committee investigating faculty intimidation of students at Columbia, he listed the support he'd received from various quarters, including petitions and letters. He then added this: The Middle East Studies Association’s Academic Freedom Committee also issued a letter defending my academic freedom, as did the American …
Massad’s bad book
I was on the road when the Columbia story peaked, so I haven't had my say yet. Be patient. For starters, I'll begin with Joseph Massad, the most egregious of Columbia's faculty miscreants, who released his statement to the ad hoc committee after publication of its report. It's a bizarre collage of self-serving lies, half-truths, …
The madness of Massad
James Panero, art critic and associate editor of The New Criterion, recently reviewed Edward Said's Humanism and Democratic Criticism. He now makes this comparison between Said and Columbia assistant professor Joseph Massad, who stands accused of browbeating his students. (Venue: Armavirumque, weblog of The New Criterion.) The difference between Professor Massad and Edward Said is …
Saving Private Massad
Fiascos at Columbia University follow one another in a dizzying succession. This week's episode opens tonight at the Law School, where four academics will solemnly consider a burning question. No, it's not how to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which is the present mission of armies of diplomats and statesmen. It's this: "Is the two-state …
Edward Said and Twelve Disciples at Post-Orientalist Passover
Today, Columbia University marks twenty-five years to the publication of Edward Said's book Orientalism, with a day of lectures at the Casa Italiana. Twelve panelists and discussants will consider the book and its author, who will offer his own concluding remarks this evening. Don't expect a critical appreciation of Orientalism and its influence. These are …
Continue reading Edward Said and Twelve Disciples at Post-Orientalist Passover
Bir Zeit-on-Hudson
Two weekends ago, Columbia University hosted a Palestinian film festival. I have nothing against such festivals, which have been held over the past year in Seattle and Chicago. Some of the films are worthy examples of the art. But of course, Columbia's faculty can be counted upon to give a legitimate exercise the flavor of …
Malpractice at Columbia
From Martin Kramer, "Arabic Panic," Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2002, pp. 88-95. Posted retroactively at Sandbox. "I've never used my classes to talk about political activism of the kind that I've done. I've stuck pretty carefully to the notion that the classroom is sacrosanct to a certain degree." The words belong to Edward Said, who …
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