Academic Boycotts C/D

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http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1785633,00.html

should russian, american, and indeed british academics be boycotted for the policies of their governments?

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 08:14 (nineteen years ago)

It's funny, the article you link to does not mention either Russia, the USA, or the UK.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

indeed not. i was making a point. russia, the usa, and the uk (and divers other countries) also do appalling things. do brit academics intend to boycott themselves over iraq?

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 08:52 (nineteen years ago)

No, they boycott exams instead.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 08:57 (nineteen years ago)

Well nobody approves of exams.

I tend to find academic boycotts a bit ropey to be fair. I think individual academics should clearly consider the ethics of how and what they study, but if they themselves have no problem with the where, or they themselves are actively working against the where they should not be penalised. And as we are seeing with the UK boycott, academics have very little political sway. As a way of sending a message to more influential political bodies, then maybe. But it does seem a bit dud on the whole.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:00 (nineteen years ago)

No. It's censorship. Academics either do not follow a party line, or their funding can be traced to one, but enough of them are at odds with their governments, especially those governments we find crypto-fascist or just plain greedy. I would like to hear what they and their interlocutors would say. Freedom of speech has to encompass those with whom we do not agree, find unpalatable, come from 'bad regimes' whatever because if we censor THEM where's our comeback when someone wants to censor us? Also where's the opportunity for engagement or opposition to ideas we don't like if we don't flex our debating skills there?

This is such a big, fat, motherfucker of a D'OH. Scholarship should be beyond this sort of petty but academia surely has a million pettinesses that are not this one to be getting on with?

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:12 (nineteen years ago)

A superlative surely there and an underestimation of the number of pettinesses. Apart from that Suzy OTM.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:45 (nineteen years ago)

now if we're being pedantic i don't think you meant 'superlative'.

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:46 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, my brain is apparently on academic boycott too. Surely I mean a superfluous surely.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:58 (nineteen years ago)

Without talking about the specific case in the linked-to article, I cannot oppose academic boycotts in principle. Academia can be part of the apparatus of state oppression, and can contain within itself structures which mirror the oppressive system being objected to. In any case, academia does not exist separately to its host society, and the idea that it is OK to boycott coffee growers (say) but not economics lecturers seems merely to encourage the self-importance of some academics.

I feel that academic boycotts should be used selectively where they might work, and not on a blanket "moral" basis. So the USA does very bad things, but as it is the centre of gravity in English language (and world?) academia, an academic boycott of it would be pointless. With a small marginal country, on the other hand, an academic boycott is a much more potent weapon.

Getting back to the case in the linked-to article, I saw an Israeli academic speak once in favour of the boycott. She made what I think is the eminently sensible suggestion - that it should apply to all her countries academics, with no get-out for those who voice opposition to the government's policies. She reckoned that anything like that would lead to a kind of kangaroo court process where people were being assessed for how right-on their opinions were. Better that everyone, including her, were subject to the boycott, or so she reckoned.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

I say take away their toys but never take away their books.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

She reckoned that anything like that would lead to a kind of kangaroo court process where people were being assessed for how right-on their opinions were.

well, god forbid that should happen.

With a small marginal country, on the other hand, an academic boycott is a much more potent weapon.

maybe this is the real explanation; it's a way in which lecturers get to play on a world stage. i'd have far more respect if they turned against US universities (didn't columbia used to be owned by an arms combine?) but they know it wouldn't fly.

― Enrique IX: The Mediator (Enrique), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:09 (nineteen years ago)

Academics trying to change the domestic policies of foreign countries by boycotting other academics is like trying to lose weight by cutting leeks out of your diet.

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

I'm hesitant ever to claim that something is the product of antisemitism, but I can't really see another explanation here. It's only Jewish lecturers who are going to be required to give an account of their politics. There won't be any Palestian lecturers asked to disassociate themselves from Islamic terrorism or Palestinian liberation efforts. And academia in Israel is the leftiest sector, aside from the hippy kids who sit on beaches wearing bead necklaces.

it's a way in which lecturers get to play on a world stage

Yes that's probably a big factor too.

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

I'd like to start a internet sweepstake agency where people could bet how many posts an interweb messageboard thread about Israel includes a discussion of whether or not something is anti-semetic.

― Dave B (daveb), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

And within that, how many times someone suggests that simply because it's a predictable event, doesn't mean it isn't a valid point. Do you think it wasn't antisemitic? Is it an even-handed response? Do I always turn up on threads saying something is antisemitic?

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:13 (nineteen years ago)

I think the relationship between the current European anti-Israel sentiments and anti-semitism has been fairly thoroughly dissected, and it's far from a direct relationship. There are ways you can express anti-Israel sentiment that are clearly anti-Semitic, and indeed this has happened, but an academic boycott is probably not one of them.

I mean, for fuck's sake, if you want to look for anti-Semitism, academia is probably going to be pretty low on your list of priorities.

― Eppy (Eppy), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

I don't prioritise antisemitism, nor go looking for it. But as it happens, academia is a particularly unpleasant place to find it. (Ok, jury's out on whether this is an example of that though.) After all, you'd expect/hope universities and colleges to be places where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged and people don't get shouted down for being Jewish or Israeli or even for not expressing their political views. Neo Nazi violence is unpleasant, sure, but it doesn't represent a mainstream view. Academic thought doesn't stay in academia very long.

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

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