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Quote for the Day
The American Historical Association's recent resolution against the Iraq war is raising real--and deserved--questions about the ability of history professors to differentiate their politic leanings from their pedagogical practices.
When asked to comment on the AHA's resolution, University of Pennsylvania history chair Walter Licht told the Daily Pennsylvanian that while the AHA had the right to pass such a resolution, professors should not bring their politics into their teaching. The history department, Licht stated, "does not use the classroom as a pulpit."
Amen to that.
Posted by acta online at January 11, 2007 03:42 PM
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Comments
The resolution does send a clear signal to history PhD studenst about what kind of politics they should have to maximize their success in the profession. Since these professors could not possibly expect their resolution to have any influence on the war, the only purpose it served was to send a message about their profession.
Posted by: James D. Miller at January 11, 2007 04:55 PM
Umm, it should have sent the message that the war in Iraq was illegal to begin with and full of mistakes that have yet to be addressed by the Bush administration. And hopefully it doesn't take a PhD in history to understand that. More organizations and individuals should have the courage to pass such official statements against Bush's folly.
I also find it interesting that the writer of this blog implies that a disciplinary bodies vote -- that horrible democratic process that ACTA seems to abhor -- on a resolutions is equal to some sort of "Party Line" on classroom instruction. It might be useful for the writer to understand a bit more about disciplinary organizations and the difference between programmatic or disciplinary goals and classroom instruction.
Posted by: Rich Hancuff at January 12, 2007 11:38 AM
HOW AMUSING
" .. it should have sent the message that the war in Iraq was illegal .."
JDM was correct; to get along, vote along. When you have supposedly-educated persons making claims without facts or supportive actions, you know you are in the Academic Zone. What a farce!
Posted by: B.D. at January 15, 2007 09:20 AM
Lamentably, the AHA seems to have followed the example of the ludicrous and disgraceful actions and resolutions issuing (like sewer-water) from the mouths of the "leadership" of the MLA. The MLA has a long and notorious record of foghorning leftist political (live high, talk low) nonsense, at least since open disloyalty (as opposed to actual scholarship) became fashionable in the days of Louis Kampf
Posted by: Jacques Albert at January 25, 2007 05:08 PM