Nadia Abu El Haj: Difference between revisions
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Barnard President [[Judith Shapiro]] responded in November 2006 with an open letter to alumnae in which she wrote that Abu El Haj's tenure review process would involve "distinguished scholars in the candidate's field", including "[[Archaeology|archaeologists]] with appropriate expertise and broad comparative perspectives". She said that tenure decisions are made after "long and careful consideration to such outside evaluations". She expressed appreciation for feedback from alumnae, but wrote that she was concerned about "communications and letter-writing campaigns" and said that Barnard would "adhere to the principles that have served us so well throughout our history."<ref name=Shapiro>{{cite web|title=A Message to Alumnae from President Judith Shapiro|author=[[Judith Shapiro]]|date=[[November 16]], [[2006]]|publisher=[[Barnard College]]|accessdate=2007-09-01|url=http://alum.barnard.edu/site/PageServer?pagename=alu_shapirostatement&JServSessionIdr011=lyyz0uxvv1.app1a }}</ref> Shapiro also stated that "it is a legitimate cultural anthropological enterprise to show how archaeological research can be used for political and ideological purposes."<ref name=Jaschik>{{cite web|title=Input or Intrusion?|author=Scott Jaschik|publisher=Inside Higher Ed|date=21 November 2007|accessdate=2007-09-01|url=http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/21/disputes}}</ref> |
Barnard President [[Judith Shapiro]] responded in November 2006 with an open letter to alumnae in which she wrote that Abu El Haj's tenure review process would involve "distinguished scholars in the candidate's field", including "[[Archaeology|archaeologists]] with appropriate expertise and broad comparative perspectives". She said that tenure decisions are made after "long and careful consideration to such outside evaluations". She expressed appreciation for feedback from alumnae, but wrote that she was concerned about "communications and letter-writing campaigns" and said that Barnard would "adhere to the principles that have served us so well throughout our history."<ref name=Shapiro>{{cite web|title=A Message to Alumnae from President Judith Shapiro|author=[[Judith Shapiro]]|date=[[November 16]], [[2006]]|publisher=[[Barnard College]]|accessdate=2007-09-01|url=http://alum.barnard.edu/site/PageServer?pagename=alu_shapirostatement&JServSessionIdr011=lyyz0uxvv1.app1a }}</ref> Shapiro also stated that "it is a legitimate cultural anthropological enterprise to show how archaeological research can be used for political and ideological purposes."<ref name=Jaschik>{{cite web|title=Input or Intrusion?|author=Scott Jaschik|publisher=Inside Higher Ed|date=21 November 2007|accessdate=2007-09-01|url=http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/21/disputes}}</ref> |
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In an extraordinary sttement in November of 2006, archaeologist Professor [[William Dever]] told the [[New York Sun]] that Abu El Haj should be denied tenure "because her scholarship is faulty." http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/2946 |
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Articles appeared intermittently during the remainder of the 2006-07 academic year, but widespread attention was drawn to Abu El Haj just before the start of the 2007-08 academic year with a pair of dueling petitions, to deny and to grant tenure. |
Articles appeared intermittently during the remainder of the 2006-07 academic year, but widespread attention was drawn to Abu El Haj just before the start of the 2007-08 academic year with a pair of dueling petitions, to deny and to grant tenure. |
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The petiton opposing tenure appeared first. It states "We are submitting this petition because the use of evidence in "Facts on the Ground" fails to meet the standards of scholarship that are expected of Columbia and Barnard undergraduates." http://www.petitiononline.com/barnard/ |
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| ⚫ | In response, a petition supporting Abu El Haj was initiated by Paul Manning, a linguist in the anthropology department at [[Trent University]] in [[Peterborough]], [[Canada]].<ref name=Arenson/> He explained that part of what motivated him was that, "Nadia has been targeted a long time, for years, and she's not been having a very good time of it."<ref name=Arenson/> By September of 2007, some 1,300 people had signed to support her bid for tenure, calling the attacks on her "an orchestrated witch hunt" designed to shut down legitimate intellectual inquiry.<ref name=Arenson/> By this time, Stern's petition had garnered 2,000 signatures. |
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Elaine Bloom, a Barnard alumnist and former politician with no known credentials in anthropology or archaeology, said that Abu El Haj "has written and made statements that are not based in fact and refused to recognize fact." She also said she might stop contributing to the college if Abu El Haj wins tenure.<ref>Ben Harris, "[http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070814ElHajbarnard.html Petition, donor threats on prof puts spotlight back on Columbia]", ''[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]'', [[August 14]], [[2007]].</ref> |
Elaine Bloom, a Barnard alumnist and former politician with no known credentials in anthropology or archaeology, said that Abu El Haj "has written and made statements that are not based in fact and refused to recognize fact." She also said she might stop contributing to the college if Abu El Haj wins tenure.<ref>Ben Harris, "[http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070814ElHajbarnard.html Petition, donor threats on prof puts spotlight back on Columbia]", ''[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]'', [[August 14]], [[2007]].</ref> |
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''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]'' also wrote that many of Abu El Haj's supporters said that peer review, and not public pressure, are appropriate measures of a scholar's work, and they noted that Abu El Haj has been the recipient of many awards, grants, and academic appointments.<ref name=Chronicle/> |
''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]'' also wrote that many of Abu El Haj's supporters said that peer review, and not public pressure, are appropriate measures of a scholar's work, and they noted that Abu El Haj has been the recipient of many awards, grants, and academic appointments.<ref name=Chronicle/> |
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An article in the [[New York Times]] in September of 2007 reported that many of Abu El Haj's supporters, particularly those in the field of anthropology, say "her book is solid, even brilliant, and part of an innovative trend of looking at how disciplines function."<ref name=Arenson/> |
An article in the [[New York Times]] in September of 2007 reported that many of Abu El Haj's supporters, particularly those in the field of anthropology, say "her book is solid, even brilliant, and part of an innovative trend of looking at how disciplines function."<ref name=Arenson/> The book continues to be harshly criticized by archaeologists and historians. <ref name=Arenson/> |
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In the same article, Alan F. Segal, who teaches the history and archaeology of ancient Israel at [[Barnard College]] said that "There is every reason in the world to want her to have tenure, and only one reason against it — her work, I believe it is not good enough."<ref name=Arenson/> He proceeded to say that he was specifically concerned by El Haj's hypothesis that the ancient Israelites did not live in the area now known as [[Israel]], and feels that she either ignored or misunderstood the evidence to the contrary. “She completely misunderstands what the biblical tradition is saying,” he added. “She is not even close. She is so bizarrely off.”<ref name=Arenson/> |
In the same article, Alan F. Segal, who teaches the history and archaeology of ancient Israel at [[Barnard College]] said that "There is every reason in the world to want her to have tenure, and only one reason against it — her work, I believe it is not good enough."<ref name=Arenson/> He proceeded to say that he was specifically concerned by El Haj's hypothesis that the ancient Israelites did not live in the area now known as [[Israel]], and feels that she either ignored or misunderstood the evidence to the contrary. “She completely misunderstands what the biblical tradition is saying,” he added. “She is not even close. She is so bizarrely off.”<ref name=Arenson/> |
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Revision as of 22:24, 11 September 2007
Nadia Abu El Haj | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1962 |
| Occupation | Anthropologist |
Nadia Abu El Haj (b. 1962) is a Palestinian-American academic[1] with a PhD in Anthropology. She is an assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard College and the Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University.[2] [3]
The author of Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (2001), Abu El Haj became the center of a tenure battle at Barnard and Columbia University during the 2006-07 academic year.[4]
Academic background
Abu El Haj attended Bryn Mawr for her Bachelor of Arts degree, and received her doctoral degree from Duke University.[5] Between 1993 and 1995, she did post-doctoral work with a fellowship from Harvard University's Academy for International and Area Studies with a focus on the Middle East.[6] She secured further academic credentials by way of fellowships from the University of Pennsylvania Mellon Program, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.[7]
She is a former Fulbright Fellow and the recipient of many awards including the SSRC-McArthur Grant in International Peace and Security, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the National Endowment for the Humanities among others.[7]
Abu El-Haj has lectured at the New York Academy of Sciences, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics (LSE), and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. She also served as part of the faculty of the Anthropology Department at the University of Chicago.[7]
She is one of the Associate Editors of the American Ethnologist: A Journal of the American Ethnological Society.[1]
Philosophical bases
Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society
In 2001, Abu El Haj published Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society.[7] The book was recognized by the Middle East Studies Association of North America as one of the winners of the 2002 Albert Hourani Book Award, which recognizes outstanding publishing in Middle East studies.[8]
This work examines the relationship between scientific knowledge and the construction of social imaginations and political orders. Focusing on the discipline of archaeology as a historical science, it specifies how archaeological practice generates facts and attempts to understand how those facts help to fashion cultural understandings, political possibilities and 'common-sense' assumptions.[7]
Recent Scholarship
Abu El-Haj's more recent scholarship explores the field of genetic anthropology through the analysis of projects aimed at reconstructing the origins and migrations of specific populations.[7] Analysis is also directed toward the role of for-profit corporations offering genetic ancestry testing.[7] How race, diaspora, and kinship intersect and how genetic origins emerge as a shared concern among those seeking redress or recognition are predominant themes in the work.[7]
Tenure controversy
Abu El-Haj joined the Anthropology Department at Barnard College in the fall of 2002.[7] Because of Barnard College's affiliation with Columbia University, professors recommended for tenure at Barnard are subject to approval by Columbia. 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.
A group of Barnard alumnae opposed to tenure for Abu El Haj was formed, led by Paula Stern, who lives in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.[3] Stern wrote that Abu El Haj had "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.'[9] The Hasmonean and Davidic dynasties are a mere 'belief, an ideological assertion, a pure political fabrication.'[10] Paula Stern identifies this "absurd and unsupported assertion" as the theme of Facts on the Ground.[11]
Barnard President Judith Shapiro responded in November 2006 with an open letter to alumnae in which she wrote that Abu El Haj's tenure review process would involve "distinguished scholars in the candidate's field", including "archaeologists with appropriate expertise and broad comparative perspectives". She said that tenure decisions are made after "long and careful consideration to such outside evaluations". She expressed appreciation for feedback from alumnae, but wrote that she was concerned about "communications and letter-writing campaigns" and said that Barnard would "adhere to the principles that have served us so well throughout our history."[12] Shapiro also stated that "it is a legitimate cultural anthropological enterprise to show how archaeological research can be used for political and ideological purposes."[13]
In an extraordinary sttement in November of 2006, archaeologist Professor William Dever told the New York Sun that Abu El Haj should be denied tenure "because her scholarship is faulty." http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/2946
Articles appeared intermittently during the remainder of the 2006-07 academic year, but widespread attention was drawn to Abu El Haj just before the start of the 2007-08 academic year with a pair of dueling petitions, to deny and to grant tenure.
The petiton opposing tenure appeared first. It states "We are submitting this petition because the use of evidence in "Facts on the Ground" fails to meet the standards of scholarship that are expected of Columbia and Barnard undergraduates." http://www.petitiononline.com/barnard/
In response, a petition supporting Abu El Haj was initiated by Paul Manning, a linguist in the anthropology department at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada.[3] He explained that part of what motivated him was that, "Nadia has been targeted a long time, for years, and she's not been having a very good time of it."[3] By September of 2007, some 1,300 people had signed to support her bid for tenure, calling the attacks on her "an orchestrated witch hunt" designed to shut down legitimate intellectual inquiry.[3] By this time, Stern's petition had garnered 2,000 signatures.
Elaine Bloom, a Barnard alumnist and former politician with no known credentials in anthropology or archaeology, said that Abu El Haj "has written and made statements that are not based in fact and refused to recognize fact." She also said she might stop contributing to the college if Abu El Haj wins tenure.[14]
In August of 2007, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that support for Abu El Haj was growing among scholars of anthropology and of Middle East studies. Lisa Wedeen, a scholar of the Middle East at the University of Chicago and chair of its Political Science department, said that Facts on the Ground was about "how science and nationalist imaginings work together, how they basically shape each other", and that Abu El Haj was more interested in the philosophy of science than in political argument.[15]
The Chronicle of Higher Education also wrote that many of Abu El Haj's supporters said that peer review, and not public pressure, are appropriate measures of a scholar's work, and they noted that Abu El Haj has been the recipient of many awards, grants, and academic appointments.[15]
An article in the New York Times in September of 2007 reported that many of Abu El Haj's supporters, particularly those in the field of anthropology, say "her book is solid, even brilliant, and part of an innovative trend of looking at how disciplines function."[3] The book continues to be harshly criticized by archaeologists and historians. [3]
In the same article, Alan F. Segal, who teaches the history and archaeology of ancient Israel at Barnard College said that "There is every reason in the world to want her to have tenure, and only one reason against it — her work, I believe it is not good enough."[3] He proceeded to say that he was specifically concerned by El Haj's hypothesis that the ancient Israelites did not live in the area now known as Israel, and feels that she either ignored or misunderstood the evidence to the contrary. “She completely misunderstands what the biblical tradition is saying,” he added. “She is not even close. She is so bizarrely off.”[3]
Conversely, Michael Dietler, a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago said, "She is a scholar of the highest quality and integrity who is being persecuted because she has the courage to focus an analytical lens on subjects that others wish to shield from scrutiny, and because she happens to be of Palestinian origin."[3]
Published works
- "The Genetic Reinscription of Race" in Annual Review of Anthropology (2007).[7]
- "Rethinking Genetic Geneaology: A Response to Stephan Palmi" in American Ethnologist (2007), 34:2:223-227.[7][2]
- "Edward Said and the Political Present" in American Ethnologist (2005), 32:4:538-555.[7]
- "Reflections on Archaeology and Israeli Settler-Nationhood" in Radical History Review (spring 2003), 86:149-163.[3]
- "Producing (Arti)Facts: Archaeology and Power during the British Mandate of Palestine" in Israel Studies Summer (2002), 7:2:33-61.[7]
- Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (2001), University of Chicago Press.
- "Translating Truths: Nationalism, Archaeological Practice and the Remaking of Past and Present in Contemporary Jerusalem" in American Ethnologist (1998), 25:2:166-188.[7]
Academic lectures
- "Bearing the Mark of Israel? Genetics, Geneaology, and the Quest for Jewish Origins," (30 November 2004) for The New York Consortium on Science and Society[16]
- "Genealogical Quests: Question of Identity at the Crossroads of the Historical and Natural Sciences," (28 April 2004) at the University of California in Santa Barbara.[4]
- Lecturer for classes on "Theories of Culture" and "Race and Sex in Scientific and Social Practice" (2002-2003) for the Barnard College Anthropology Department.[5]
References
- ^ Diana Muir and Avigail Appelbaum (31 May 2006). "Review of Nadia Abu el-Haj's Facts on the Ground; Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (University of Chicago Press, 2001)". History News Network. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ "Admission Information: Faculty". Columbia University. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Karen W. Arenson (10 September 2007). "Fracas Erupts Over Book on Mideast by a Barnard Professor Seeking Tenure". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Input or Intrusion?", Inside Higher Ed, November 21, 2006.
- ^ a b "Barnard Welcomes New Faculty to Campus". Barnard News Center. 1 September 2002. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ "Academy Scholars (1986 - 2006)" (PDF). Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Nadia Abu El Haj". Barnard College Department of Anthropology. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ Albert Hourani Book Award Recipients, 1991-2005, Middle East Studies Association of North America.
- ^ The two quotations in this sentence are from unrelated passages on pages 74 and 104 of Facts on the Ground. Early versions of Stern's message did not include an ellipsis, creating the false impression that she had quoted a sentence from Abu El Haj's book. See, for example, "The Shame of Barnard College: Professor Nadia Abu El Haj", November 6, 2006.
- ^ Despite Stern's use of quotation marks around "belief, an ideological assertion, a pure political fabrication", this is not a direct quote from Facts on the Ground. On page 250, these words appear in the following context: "In other words, the modern Jewish/Israeli belief in ancient Israelite origins is not understood as pure political fabrication. It is not an ideological assertion comparable to Arab claims of Canaanite or other ancient tribal roots." (Italics in original) Both sentences are part of a summary of a paper by Israeli archaeologist Magen Broshi ("Religion, Ideology, and Politics and Their Impact on Palestinian Archaeology", Israel Museum Journal 6:17-32, 1987); in her summary, Abu El Haj does not refer to the Hasmonean and Davidic dynasties.
- ^ Paula Stern, "Nadia El Haj at Barnard: The Background", last updated May 5, 2007.
- ^ Judith Shapiro (November 16, 2006). "A Message to Alumnae from President Judith Shapiro". Barnard College. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Scott Jaschik (21 November 2007). "Input or Intrusion?". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
- ^ Ben Harris, "Petition, donor threats on prof puts spotlight back on Columbia", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 14, 2007.
- ^ a b John Gravois, "Newest Battlefield of Middle East Conflict Is Tenure Case at Barnard College", The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 20, 2007.
- ^ "Events: New York Consortium on Science and Society". NYU. Retrieved 2007-09-01.