MLA Commons | Russell A. Berman | Activity https://mla.hcommons.org/members/russellberman/activity/ Activity feed for Russell A. Berman. Sat, 04 Apr 2026 08:59:55 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 6842389dea17601b3d29c00fc13fa990 Russell A. Berman started the topic Against Academic Boycotts: Presentation at APA in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/against-academic-boycotts-presentation-at-apa/ Tue, 16 Aug 2016 22:57:38 -0400 (You can also read this piece here.)
Academic Boycotts and Professional Responsibility

Delivered at the Annual Convention of the

American Philosophical Association,

San Francisco, March 31, 2016
Russell A. Berman

I was invited to speak on this panel, having been reassured that it would be devoted to academic boycotts, in general, but I cannot…[Read more]

]]> 0 6aec633ae3e0ce82bed1a8be9f132e23 Russell A. Berman started the topic The Ten Worst Things about BDS in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/the-ten-worst-things-about-bds/ Mon, 15 Aug 2016 12:36:14 -0400  
The Ten Worst Things About the BDS Movement
                                                                                                  Cary Nelson

1. BDS demonizes, antagonizes, and delegitimizes one of the two parties who have to negotiate a solution to the conflict by working together and uncritically idealizes the other.

 

…[Read more]

]]> 0 b43d75a424f66cd9efbad8c14891e3cd Russell A. Berman started the topic The Myth of Institutional Boycotts in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/the-myth-of-institutional-boycotts/ Mon, 15 Aug 2016 00:46:30 -0400 Proponents of BDS (currently) argue that they are (only) proposing a boycott of institutions (only Israeli universities) and that this will not harm individuals. In Inside Higher Education, David Hirsh dismantles this myth.  Boycotts of institutions harm the individuals in those institutions.

Attacking Israeli universities is an attack on un…[Read more]

]]> 0 ab22d2622fc01355e08740d3b48ec19d Russell A. Berman started the topic The "Institutional Boycott" and the MLA Bibliography in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/the-institutional-boycott-and-the-mla-bibliography/ Tue, 24 Mar 2015 12:57:23 -0400 BDS proponents claim only an “institutional boycott” is at stake that will not be directed against individuals. That distinction between institution and individual is untenable, as has been argued elsewhere.

But let’s assume–just for the sake of argument in this post–that one could  have an exclusively “institutional boycott” that somehow s…[Read more]

]]> 0 1601dfb6306f5bf374fa849bc1f9787c Russell A. Berman started the topic Boycott as Incitement in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/boycott-as-incitement/ Tue, 24 Mar 2015 12:08:01 -0400 BDS proponents downplay the likely practical consequences of the boycott. They claim it will only prohibit the institution (e.g. the MLA) from collaborating with Israeli universities and will not impinge on the scholarly life of individuals. Let us leave aside here the ambiguity of individual vs. institution (would the chair of a literature…[Read more]

]]> 0 e95de0cda3cf087f17e02dfd85167c48 Russell A. Berman started the topic British Activists Oppose BDS in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/british-activists-oppose-bds/ Tue, 24 Mar 2015 05:02:12 -0400 Check this out.

]]> 0 6f233152de6a8c22152d5a289ad8024a Russell A. Berman started the topic Censorship, Self-Censorship and Half-Hearted "Justice in Palestine" in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/censorship-self-censorship-and-half-hearted-justice-in-palestine/ Fri, 06 Feb 2015 16:14:42 -0500 Those advocating that the MLA boycott Israeli academic institutions are rallying under the banner of “Justice for Palestine.” Everyone in fact should support justice, and not only in Palestine. Agreed? Unfortunately the slogan “Justice for Palestine” is just that, a slogan; it is a vehicle to attack Israel and is only concerned with “justice” when…[Read more]

]]> 0 f0809dcb7a622876fcd64e1381271c6f Russell A. Berman started the topic "Justice in Palestine" and the Kasabeh murder in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/justice-in-palestine-and-the-kasabeh-murder/ Thu, 05 Feb 2015 06:35:15 -0500 Do BDS  supporters have anything to say about the burning of pilot Kasabeh? Or will they blame it on Israel?

]]> 0 8daa2a3cd0f5f681dfbd53345056adf8 Russell A. Berman started the topic Palestinian Human Rights Leader Attacks the Boycott in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/palestinian-human-rights-leader-attacks-the-boycott/ Sat, 24 Jan 2015 23:02:32 -0500 Bassem Eid is the founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. He has also become a strident critic of the Palestinian Authority–given the threat that the PA poses to human rights. Hence his dismissal of the boycott.

The question in our discussion is whether those who call for “justice in Palestine” are able to see any injustice…[Read more]

]]> 0 10b6a834ba96e1e113e89e63b6907fc9 Russell A. Berman replied to the topic Correction to the Record on the Delegate Assembly Vote in the discussion MLA Members for Justice in Palestine http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/mla-members-for-justice-in-palestine/forum/topic/correction-to-the-record-on-the-delegate-assembly-vote-2/#post-6469 Tue, 20 Jan 2015 05:15:01 -0500 Unfortunately it cuts both ways. A former student of mine, with, let me say, centrist views on the Middle East, lost his job–he was just a lecturer, and the anti-Israel tenured faculty decided he was expendable.

That’s why we should work toward a culture in which academic decisions are not subordinated to political judgments, and that’s why I…[Read more]

]]> 0 33711c480376a476ab404474ff1a6cbf Russell A. Berman replied to the topic Correction to the Record on the Delegate Assembly Vote in the discussion MLA Members for Justice in Palestine http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/mla-members-for-justice-in-palestine/forum/topic/correction-to-the-record-on-the-delegate-assembly-vote-2/#post-6460 Sun, 18 Jan 2015 21:50:18 -0500 Margaret–We’re in agreement at least about ambiguity! (and you and I are in agreement, unambiguously, about the previous year’s CCSF discussion).  On point four, I recall speaking for a broadened franchise in governance and receiving lots of positive support for that. Had I been a delegate with voting rights on this matter, I too would have…[Read more]

]]> 0 e53ac59e843214b73aee2312f800beec Russell A. Berman replied to the topic Correction to the Record on the Delegate Assembly Vote in the discussion MLA Members for Justice in Palestine http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/mla-members-for-justice-in-palestine/forum/topic/correction-to-the-record-on-the-delegate-assembly-vote-2/#post-6457 Sun, 18 Jan 2015 17:11:50 -0500 I too am pleased that we can discuss here. The point remains that David Lloyd misrepresented the vote on point four. He is quite explicit about this in his Mondoweiss piece where he treats it (twice) as an endorsement of speech about Israel and Palestine, when it was a discussion about the MLA and faculty governance. In this discussion in which…[Read more]

]]> 0 f3e8f548eb224ab345c599de5a4cca1c Russell A. Berman started the topic Where BDS Lost: Thinking Through the Vancouver Numbers in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/where-bds-lost-thinking-through-the-vancouver-numbers/ Sat, 17 Jan 2015 23:32:52 -0500 The series of votes at the Delegate Assembly at the MLA convention in Vancouver showed some significant weaknesses to BDS and limits to its support. It’s important to look at the results closely and draw some conclusions.

Five votes deserve scrutiny: the initial vote to adopt the Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee (DAOC) two-year moratorium…[Read more]

]]> 0 91edfa709fa94ff0850b8b57ae4c70e0 Russell A. Berman started the topic Correction to the Record on the Delegate Assembly Vote in the discussion MLA Members for Justice in Palestine http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/mla-members-for-justice-in-palestine/forum/topic/correction-to-the-record-on-the-delegate-assembly-vote-2/ Sat, 17 Jan 2015 00:46:50 -0500 The recent Delegate Assembly meeting in Vancouver included a robust discussion on a set of issues, prompted by the clash of two different proposed resolutions–one supporting academic boycotts, one opposing them. The Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee has wisely created space for discussion of these matters (an agreement that included a w…[Read more]

]]> 0 8b22662030cd20c75f012a07b097844c Russell A. Berman started the topic Correction to the Record on the Delegate Assembly Vote in the discussion Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/correction-to-the-record-on-the-delegate-assembly-vote/ Fri, 16 Jan 2015 22:33:28 -0500 The recent Delegate Assembly meeting in Vancouver included a robust discussion on a set of issues, prompted by the clash of two different proposed resolutions–one supporting academic boycotts, one opposing them. The Delegate Assembly Organizing  Committee has wisely created space for discussion of these matters (an agreement that included a…[Read more]

]]> 0 0d780470d9621ef50d58abe1d531b60e Russell A. Berman started the topic The Challenge of Open Discussion: Another Lesson from the Delegate Assembly in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/the-challenge-of-open-discussion-another-lesson-from-the-delegate-assembly/ Mon, 12 Jan 2015 16:38:58 -0500 The DAOC program involves an extended, two-year  discussion of topics relevant to the boycott–in order to explore their complexity and in order to inform the membership. These would seem to be desirable goals.

A disheartening outcome of the DA was that, in the initial vote as to whether to accept the DAOC proposal, about one third of the DA…[Read more]

]]> 0 405f1a0327c6d8c7a35d862abc840bcd Russell A. Berman replied to the topic Delegate Assembly meeting in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/delegate-assembly-meeting/#post-6369 Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:38:07 -0500 There’s a useful description of the DA discussion at:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/12/mla-members-debate-when-and-how-take-stand-issues-such-israel-boycott

 

]]> 0 a07568ace79405413b137a8757956934 Russell A. Berman started the topic What is a boycott? One lesson from the Delegate Assembly in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/what-is-a-boycott-one-lesson-from-the-delegate-assembly/ Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:39:12 -0500 The Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee has initiated a series of venues (including this commons group) to discuss issues around BDS. In particular, it dedicated much of the open discussion section of the DA meeting to this: these are opportunities to get insight into the various opinions at stake.

One key take-away for me from the DA…[Read more]

]]> 0 5498a85799f595c9874eb605d1630764 Russell A. Berman started the topic BDS means subordinating academic judgment to political criteria in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/bds-means-subordinating-academic-judgment-to-political-criteria/ Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:38:35 -0500 “[…] the ethical responsibility of every free person and every association of free persons, academic institutions included, to resist injust supersedes other considerations about whether such acts of resistance may directly or indirectly injure academic freedom.”

–Omar Barghouti, “Boycott, Academic Freedom, and the Moral Responsibility to U…[Read more]

]]> 0 a7b2a217af101d26f3b59012cc9379bf Russell A. Berman started the topic BDS and Infinite Censorship: the "Common Sense Boycott" in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/bds-and-infinite-censorship-the-common-sense-boycott/ Sat, 10 Jan 2015 04:43:46 -0500 A revealing feature of BDS discourse is an intentional ambiguity about its target.  Claims for respect for individual freedom go hand in hand with a threat that–nonetheless!– anyone can be  subjected to a “common sense boycott.” Consider the passage from the definitive PACBI guidelines (emphasis added):

“While an individual’s freedom of exp…[Read more]

]]> 0 5ec5a2282fd3510c0fc1d8f4ab8194a0 Russell A. Berman started the topic British architects retract boycott! in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/british-architects-retract-boycott/ Thu, 08 Jan 2015 07:09:27 -0500 BDS proponents uses a maximalist rhetoric–boycott Israel in order to end the regime and terminate the State of Israel–but when a law suit looms, their timidity quickly shows. That’s what happened with ASA, and now there’s an interesting parallel with British architects, which you can read about here.  Is this the face of BDS radicalism:…[Read more]

]]> 0 ec7f64def2145641883a4db27540f6f9 Russell A. Berman started the topic AHA defeats BDS Stalking Horse in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/aha-defeats-bds-stalking-horse/ Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:36:23 -0500 At its recent convention, AHA-the professional organization of historians, just as the MLA is the association of scholars of language and literature–turned back a BDS-inspired initiative.  In a procedural vote, the historians rejected an anti-Israel statement put forward by a radical group. The failed proposal itself fell far short of a boycott…[Read more]

]]> 0 9f6224814dbc5eeb7d4fad8e2b92889b Russell A. Berman started the topic Academic Boycott Subverts Academic Freedom in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/academic-boycott-subverts-academic-freedom/ Sun, 04 Jan 2015 03:22:57 -0500 BDS proponents claim that the boycott will not impinge on anyone’s academic freedom. (In fact, as posted already, Omar Barghouti well understands the threat to academic freedom–he just thinks it’s worthwhile.)

Previous MLA resolutions on foreign policy issues have been statements of sentiment, condemning this or that political situation. In…[Read more]

]]> 0 757708d7e5c60bfe7b09e4597ba5207d Russell A. Berman started the topic How Boycott Means National Origin Discrimination: the Mona Baker Affair in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/how-boycott-means-national-origin-discrimination-the-mona-baker-affair/ Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:44:33 -0500 BDS proponents claim a boycott will not harm individuals and safeguards academic freedom. However the history of boycott practice proves the contrary, as for example in the so-called Mona Baker Affair:  two Israeli scholars were purged from the board of translation studies journals in the UK solely on the basis of their connection to Israeli u…[Read more]

]]> 0 108875fa7aa4519ede3dd24b660c16a1 Russell A. Berman started the topic What Ambassador Powers says on the UN Resolution Mirrors Arguments Against BDS in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/what-ambassador-powers-says-on-the-un-resolution-mirrors-arguments-against-bds/ Wed, 31 Dec 2014 05:15:06 -0500 Explanation of Vote at the Security Council Session on the Situation in the Middle East, Including the Palestinian Question, by Ambassador Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, December 30, 2014

Thank you Mr. President,
In recent years, no government has invested more in the effort to achieve Israeli-Palestinian…[Read more]

]]> 0 46016c38837d31eda70141ea31ac7584 Russell A. Berman started the topic The Case Against the Academic Boycott: an important review in the forum Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/scholarship-censorship-exclusion/forum/topic/the-case-against-the-academic-boycott-an-important-review/ Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:24:23 -0500 Check out this Review of the Case Against the Academic Boycott in which Mark Wagner discusses the volume edited by Brahm and Nelson, and on the way explores the way the dogmatic politicization of scholarship through the BDS movement is undermining practices of scholarship. The important issue behind this whole debate is whether the professional a…[Read more]

]]> 0 e3ff3ad81ec5a38936e598e68a7d9eea Russell A. Berman uploaded the file: Review of the Case Against the Boycott to Scholarship, Censorship, Exclusion https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/86933/ Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:45:49 -0500 “The Case against the Academic Boycott of Israel,” ed. Brahm and Nelson, reviewed by Mark Wagner: a reflection on deleterious consequences of boycott culture for scholarship

]]> 0 d08044cbbd3d707cbd97b2f6073406fd Russell A. Berman commented on the post, Agenda for the 2014 Delegate Assembly Meeting, on the site News from the MLA http://news.mla.hcommons.org/2013/12/20/agenda-for-the-2014-delegate-assembly-meeting/#comment-13469 Tue, 31 Dec 2013 20:12:15 -0500 Regarding the proposed resolution (2014-1). The implied principle of free and unencumbered travel is important and worth defending. However the back-up documentation provided does not make a convincing case that […]

]]> afcefd2d7ce764aee8853c12d4384f0d Russell A. Berman changed their profile picture https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/13200/ Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:36:55 -0500 0 217df273859669bb12bd5ae6894cd0c8 Russell A. Berman commented on the post, Milestones, on the site Future of the Humanities PhD http://futureofthephd.mla.hcommons.org/2013/01/13/milestones-2/#comment-16 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:09:38 -0500 This is an important discussion. Thanks for starting it. Ultimately, the conclusion of graduate study–the capstone, so to speak–a dissertation will give evidence of specialized study. I believe this will soon […]

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