Nadia Abu El Haj

Nadia Abu El Haj is a Palestinian American anthropologist who became the center of a tenure battle at Barnard College of Columbia University during the 2006/07 academic year. (http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/21/disputes)

Barnard college is part of Columbia University. Professors at Barnard are considered for tenure first by Barnard. If recommended for tenure by Barnard, a professor is then considered for tenure at Columbia. Only if Columbia also grants tenure does a professor retain his/her position at Barnard. Abu El Haj was considered for tenure at Barnard in the 2006/07 academic year, and is under consideration at Columbia in the 2007/08 academic year.

Opposition was first expressed by a group of Barnard alumnae led by Paula Stern, who wrote a letter to fellow alumnae: “A young professor at Barnard has written a book denying that the ancient Jewish or Israelite kingdoms existed. ‘What was considered to have been ancient Jewish national existence and sovereignty in their homeland is a tale best understood as the modern nation's origin myth¦ transported into the realm of history.’ The Hasmonean and Davidic dynasties are a mere ‘belief, an ideological assertion, a pure political fabrication.’ “This absurd and unsupported assertion is the theme of [[Facts on the Ground; Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society]]”

 .  http://one-village.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!BC643D0EE3B38628!2703.entry    Barnard President Judith Shapiro responded with an open letter to alumnae, expressing her concern about “concern about communications and letter-writing campaigns orchestrated by people who are not as familiar with Barnard as you are, and who may not be in the best position to judge the matter at hand.”  http://alum.barnard.edu/site/PageServer?pagename=alu_shapirostatement&JServSessionIdr011=lyyz0uxvv1.app1a

Articles appeared intermittently during the rest of the 2006/07 academic year, but widespread attention was first drawn to Abu El Haj just before the start of the 2007 fall semester with a pair of dueling petitions, to Deny http://www.petitiononline.com/barnard/petition.html and to Grant http://www.petitiononline.com/Barnard2/petition.html tenure.

The petitions were followed by a spate of news stories.

"This woman has written and made statements that are not based in fact and refused to recognize fact," said Elaine Bloom, a Barnard graduate and former Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives who said she would reconsider her support for the college if the tenure decision goes forward. "And I think it's a very harmful direction from somebody who is in a professorial position." http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/3888

“at least some of the controversy over Ms. Abu El-Haj hinges on questions that awkwardly blend the philosophy of science with high-stakes politics. Namely: Is describing an archaeological find -- or a claim to nationhood -- as socially constructed different from denying its existence? From calling it a lie?” http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/08/2007082005n.htm

There is an Columbia/Barnard alumnae/i website devoted to opposing tenure for Abu El Haj. www.NadiaAbuElHaj.com