This is going to be a micro-post (believe it or not) about an issue that requires immediate attention and to which I do promise to devote much more time in the future. In a nutshell:
This woman, Nadia Abu El-Haj, an assistant professor (and now Director of Graduate Studies and Ph.D. advisor, as well) of anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, is up for tenure. El-Haj earned her doctoral degree at Duke University by explaining how the colonialist Israeli government buttresses the (according to El-Haj) bogus claims of links between the Jewish People and Land of Israel through the manipulation of the discipline of archeology. El-Haj, being altogether a PoMo anti-nationalist, anti-colonialist, anti-structuralist, anti-(fill in the blank) sort of academic, doesn't care much for disciplines and subscibes to the theory that archeology is just another tool in the imperialist arsenal, inevitably used only to justify the worst sorts of behavior and to prop up the most vile institutions.
Well. We can certainly see why she fits in so well at Columbia.
Just for the record, El-Haj is not an archeologist, though her thesis, which was subsequently published as this book (her only one to date), pretends to dissect and expose all of the deep, nasty ways in which archeology, at least in the hands of the Wrong People, is used to achieve various nefarious aims. It's not important. It can't be said that she allows facts, even easily verifiable facts, to get in the way of her hypothesis.
That's the nutshell. Solomonia has posted on this extensively, most recently here.
Hugh Fitzgerald has hit it at Front Page.
And I'd also like to refer you to this comprehensive review of El-Haj's book by two Barnard alumna. I'll be referring back to this one in the future, for sure.
Something to think about over the weekend. If you have a blog or if you are or know any Barnard alumni, faculty, students or parents of students who aren't already familiar with this situation, please give them a heads up.
Shabbat Shalom.
