As detailed in numerous posts over the past weeks, the American Studies Association has passed an academic boycott of Israeli universities.
Although the resolution does not make this distinction, ASA asserts in its explanation that the boycott applies only to the institutions and “not individual scholars, students, or cultural workers who will be able to participate in the ASA conference or give public lectures at campuses, provided they are not expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of those institutions, or of the Israeli government.”
The explanation continues that the boycott also applies to “participation in conferences or events officially sponsored by Israeli universities.”
This would mean the boycott applies to programs and projects jointly sponsored by U.S. and Israeli academic institutions, like the Cornell-Technion campus under construction in New York City, the Brandeis-Middlebury Program at Ben Gurion University, dozens of other programs for terms abroad in Israel run by U.S. universities but hosted at Israeli universities, and many other joint university programs.
In the talking points ASA provided to its members on how to address criticism from University Administrators, Deans and Faculty, ASA states that “U.S. scholars are not discouraged under the terms of the boycott from traveling to Israel for academic purposes, provided they are not engaged in a formal partnership with or sponsorship by Israeli academic institutions.”
Now you can see how pernicious the ASA academic boycott becomes.
ASA’s boycott requires monitoring of individual Israeli scholars interacting with ASA and having such scholars disavow representation of their institutions. No scholar from any other nation is required to disavow representation of their institutions.
The ASA boycott encourages U.S. scholars to take on the role of vetting their Israeli counterparts for compliance with the boycott. For no other nation do U.S. scholars become boycott enforcers.
The ASA boycott also requires evaluation of what constitutes a boycottable program and scholar before ASA will engage with such scholars. And most of all, United States universities that interact with ASA become complicit in ASA’s national origin discrimination directed at Israeli scholars.
Everything about the boycott, even as ASA tried to parse it, runs contary to academic freedom and scholarly interaction, substituting instead a climate of distrust, suspicion, and national origin discrimination.
In light of the ASA boycott, which has been rejected by the American Association of University Professors, among others, how can Universities that object to the Israel academic boycott continue to be institutional members of ASA and continue to spend their institutions’ money to support participation in ASA events? Some of that money is taxpayer provided.
Lawrence Summers, former President of Harvard, has called for such financial support for ASA to be curtailed. University of Tennessee Law Professor Glenn Reynolds suggests the “response should be withdrawal of funding to attend ASA events. Let legislators and Trustees know.”
Here is the list of the 2013 Institutional Members of ASA, according to ASA’s most recent quarterly publication. The dues are not much, only $170 per institution, but their names lend creditibilty and legitimacy to ASA and they presumably provide financial support for faculty participation in ASA events, which is ASA’s main source of revenue:
AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION – INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS 2013Alberta Institute for American StudiesBard Graduate CenterBoston CollegeBoston UniversityBrandeis UniversityBrigham Young UniversityBrown UniversityCalifornia State University, FullertonCalifornia State University, Long BeachCarnegie-Mellon UniversityCentre for the Study of the United StatesCollege of Staten Island, CUNYCollege of William and MaryCornell UniversityCrystal Bridge Museum of American ArtCUNY Graduate Center, American Studies Certificate ProgramDePaul UniversityDickinson CollegeEccles Centre for American Studies, The British LibraryEmory UniversityFordham UniversityFranklin College of IndianaGeorge Washington UniversityGeorgetown UniversityHamilton CollegeHarvard UniversityHistorical Society of Western PennsylvaniaIndiana UniversityKennesaw State UniversityKenyon CollegeLehigh UniversityThe Long Island MuseumMichigan State University, English DepartmentMiddlebury CollegeNew York UniversityNorthwestern UniversityPenn State University, HarrisburgPrinceton UniversityRamapo CollegeRichard Stockton College of New JerseyRider UniversityRoger Williams UniversityRowan College of New JerseyRutgers University, New BrunswickSaint John Fisher CollegeSaint Louis UniversitySaint Olaf CollegeSkidmore CollegeSmith CollegeSophia UniversitySt. Francis CollegeStanford University, American Studies ProgramStanford University, Green LibraryStetson University
Students At The CenterTemple UniversityTrinity College, Hartford, CT.Tufts UniversityUniversity of AlabamaUniversity of California, San DiegoUniversity of DelawareUniversity of HawaiiUniversity of IowaUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore CountyUniversity of MinnesotaUniversity of MississippiUniversity of New MexicoUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel HillUniversity of Notre DameUniversity of Oklahoma Honors CollegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern MississippiUniversity of Texas, AustinUniversity of Texas, DallasUniversity of UtahUniversity of Western OntarioUniversity of WyomingVanderbilt UniversityVassarWashington State UniversityWashington University, St. LouisWestern Connecticut State UniversityWillamette UniversityWinterthur Program in Early AmericanCulture Youngstown State University
Many of these universities, or their affiliated printers, also provide financial support for ASA through advertising and exhibiting at Annual Meetings.
ASA has made its decision. These institutions should decide whether they will become accomplices.
(added) Here is the source of the list. The ASA website represents that “A list of institutional members is published in each issue of the American Quarterly, the Guide to American Studies Resources, and the annual meeting Program.”
Here are the 2013 entries for Insitutional Members from the American Quarterly (has to be viewed in full screen to be readable):
ASA Institutional Members 2013
UPDATES:
(Featured image source: Cornell Tech website, credit Kilograph)
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