On March 8, the federal immigration authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the anti-Israel protest at Columbia University in New York City. I am deeply concerned by these heavy-handed actions — actions that appear to be bending, if not outright breaking, the law. Such measures stand in direct contradiction to the fundamental principles we, […]
October 6, 2024 (follow up) Two events happened in Champaign-Urbana over the past couple of week, rhyming and resonating with each other. The first meeting was a lecture and a Q&A at the University YMCA by Dr. Mohammad Darawshe. Dr. Darawshe is a politician (in the past he ran Knesset election campaigns for various Arab
a tale of two meetings Read More »
A few weeks ago an anonymous Protonmail user pointed me to this remarkable site. There the author shows that the current superintendent of the Urbana School District, Dr. Ivory-Tatum (not infrequent character on this blog), plagiarized chunks of her thesis, written for her EdD degree defended at the College of Education of the UIUC a
The plot shows how frequently Google users inquire about “settler colonialism.” Red circles indicate Julys – i.e., summer breaks. The valleys between them are, quite obviously, winter breaks. Homework: interpret why over the last few years even the Spring breaks became discernible.
less surprising time series Read More »
It’s January, meaning I am busy plowing through hundreds of application to our PhD program. The process made me think once again, how writing the recommendation letters is an act of sheer altruism, and how much our job depends on acts like these. I mean, sure, there is a lot of unpaid work we do
graduate admissions and predatory capitalism Read More »
A talk on Faculty Freedom Today (today was 5.10.22) by Matthew Finkin was revolving around conventional topics: when faculty speech is protected; what are the latest vectors of attack on it etc. It had that quintessentially American flavor of pragmatic legality: establish some semblance of law (statements by AAUP, insofar they are cited by the
academic freedom, department head edition Read More »
I am being sent lately pointers to a twitter thread. It’s a lot of puerile outrage, but this claim by… – let’s call the author Dr. X, – caught my eye: I will fight this person, their grandma, their descendents, and their ghost. Then I will build a time machine and fight them in the
enemy of the people Read More »