AAUP thought it would salvage conference fiasco by publishing papers, but supporters of Israel stay away
In the annals of academic conferences, few may have been more ill-fated than the aborted conclave on academic boycotts planned by the American Association of University Professors.
When the conference was called off in March, organizers hoped that they could salvage something good from the idea by taking papers planned for the conference and publishing them in a special issue of Academe, the AAUP’s magazine.
The issue is out, but the controversy continues. Authors who are supportive of Israel refused to let Academe publish their work, arguing that the entire effort was just an attempt to “demonize” Israel. Ironically, those who support Israel generally endorse the AAUP policy on academic boycotts, which takes the view that boycotts are almost always wrong. So the issue features considerable commentary from scholars who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and who support efforts to boycott Israeli universities — a stance opposed by the association.
Joan Wallach Scott, a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study and one of the organizers of the conference and the special issue of Academe, called the boycott of the boycott papers “just a continuation of the behavior of these guys that caused the cancellation of the conference in the first place — of their absolute insistence that they call the shots on any discussion of Middle East politics.”
Read entire article at Inside Higher Ed
When the conference was called off in March, organizers hoped that they could salvage something good from the idea by taking papers planned for the conference and publishing them in a special issue of Academe, the AAUP’s magazine.
The issue is out, but the controversy continues. Authors who are supportive of Israel refused to let Academe publish their work, arguing that the entire effort was just an attempt to “demonize” Israel. Ironically, those who support Israel generally endorse the AAUP policy on academic boycotts, which takes the view that boycotts are almost always wrong. So the issue features considerable commentary from scholars who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and who support efforts to boycott Israeli universities — a stance opposed by the association.
Joan Wallach Scott, a professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study and one of the organizers of the conference and the special issue of Academe, called the boycott of the boycott papers “just a continuation of the behavior of these guys that caused the cancellation of the conference in the first place — of their absolute insistence that they call the shots on any discussion of Middle East politics.”