by Candace de Russy Phi Beta Cons (NRO) August 20, 2007
The administration and faculty on Morningside Heights
have ducked behind an ivy wall of silence. Concerned
that alumnae/i will discover what they are up to, they are
refusing to take calls from reporters and alumnae/i –
refusing to confirm or deny what everybody now assumes:
that the controversial anthropologist Nadia Abu El Haj
is up for tenure.
El Haj has published one book, which has been
criticized by her scholarly peers as a form of Jewish
history-denial often called "Temple Denial," because of
its parallel with "Holocaust Denial." In her book,
Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice
and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society,
El Haj makes the spurious claim that the ancient Jewish
kingdoms never existed. According to her, even in the
time of Jesus Jerusalem was "not Jewish."
A two-part tenure process is part of the complex
relationship between Columbia University and Barnard
College. Barnard faculty members first go up for tenure
at Barnard and, if it is granted, their tenure bid is
brought before Columbia.
JTA
reports that Barnard President Judith Shapiro is
believed to have "secretly" approved El Haj's tenure in
May 2007, hitting the ball into Columbia's court.
Why the secrecy? Some say to prevent alumnae/i from
finding out. But the alumnae/i are finding out. Some have
started a
petition, and others have
announced that they will withhold donations if this
tenure decision goes through.
Another part of the process that universities
sometimes like to keep under wraps is the names of the
people who make the key decisions. So here, for the
record, are the names of the members of the Barnard
Committee on Appointments, Tenure and Promotions who
voted to grant tenure to a woman who has written an
entire book asserting that the Israelite Kingdoms are a
"pure political fabrication": Natalie Kampen (art
history), Keith Moxey (art history), Joel Kaye
(history), Herbert Sloan (history), and Paul Hertz
(biology).
