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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SCHOLAR CANCELS LECTURES AT UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
October 8, 2014 - 14:30 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A leading scholar of the Armenian genocide, Taner
Akcam, has canceled his plans to speak at the University of Illinois
in protest at the firing of professor Steven Salaita, The Electronic
Intifada reports.
In August, the university terminated Salaita's appointment as
associate professor in the American Indian studies program only a
few weeks before he was slated to begin teaching. Salaita had used
Twitter to denounce Israel's attacks on Gaza in the period leading
to that decision.
Salaita lashed out at university administrators Monday, Oct 6
for overreaching in their decision not to hire him. Salaita,
a Palestinian-American who studies colonialism and the Middle
East, criticized the university board members, who he said "have
zero qualifications to evaluate my teaching or scholarship," and
universities more broadly for everything from "siding with Israel"
to high administrative salaries and the reliance on part-time adjunct
faculty. According to Chicago Tribune, he said he is not anti-Semitic,
as some have said, but that he "opposes the policies of the state
of Israel."
Akcam, a professor in Armenian genocide studies at Clark University
in Massachusetts, was invited to come to the University of Illinois
by Michael Rothberg, a scholar on genocide and the Holocaust. Rothberg
has been a vocal critic of the university's actions regarding Salaita,
and first shared Akcam's letter articulating why he would not deliver
any lectures at the university on a blog.
Akcam had been invited to give two lectures on campus; one on the First
World War, and another about Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide.
In an email message to The Electronic Intifada, Rothberg wrote, "I am
very disappointed that my colleagues and students won't get a chance
to hear from [Akcam] this semester, but I understand his decision. As
he makes very clear in his powerful statement, freedom of speech and
academic freedom are very personal issues for him. It was an act of
conscience for him to decide not to visit our campus at this time."
In Akcam's letter, he lists his numerous and life-threatening
experiences of living in Turkey, where marginalized ideas and speech
are easily criminalized, before writing: "So, I know the value of
freedom of speech and the weight of it resides deep inside my flesh
and bones."
Akcam is regarded as one of the first Turkish academics to openly
acknowledge and discuss the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turkish
Ottoman government. He has led a life antagonistic to how the Turkish
government treats its minorities, first working for a leftist journal
scrutinizing his government's mistreatment of the Kurdish minority
in Turkey and then in his unequivocal stance on the Genocide.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/183265/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-salaita-speaking-tour-met-1007-20141007-story.html
October 8, 2014 - 14:30 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A leading scholar of the Armenian genocide, Taner
Akcam, has canceled his plans to speak at the University of Illinois
in protest at the firing of professor Steven Salaita, The Electronic
Intifada reports.
In August, the university terminated Salaita's appointment as
associate professor in the American Indian studies program only a
few weeks before he was slated to begin teaching. Salaita had used
Twitter to denounce Israel's attacks on Gaza in the period leading
to that decision.
Salaita lashed out at university administrators Monday, Oct 6
for overreaching in their decision not to hire him. Salaita,
a Palestinian-American who studies colonialism and the Middle
East, criticized the university board members, who he said "have
zero qualifications to evaluate my teaching or scholarship," and
universities more broadly for everything from "siding with Israel"
to high administrative salaries and the reliance on part-time adjunct
faculty. According to Chicago Tribune, he said he is not anti-Semitic,
as some have said, but that he "opposes the policies of the state
of Israel."
Akcam, a professor in Armenian genocide studies at Clark University
in Massachusetts, was invited to come to the University of Illinois
by Michael Rothberg, a scholar on genocide and the Holocaust. Rothberg
has been a vocal critic of the university's actions regarding Salaita,
and first shared Akcam's letter articulating why he would not deliver
any lectures at the university on a blog.
Akcam had been invited to give two lectures on campus; one on the First
World War, and another about Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide.
In an email message to The Electronic Intifada, Rothberg wrote, "I am
very disappointed that my colleagues and students won't get a chance
to hear from [Akcam] this semester, but I understand his decision. As
he makes very clear in his powerful statement, freedom of speech and
academic freedom are very personal issues for him. It was an act of
conscience for him to decide not to visit our campus at this time."
In Akcam's letter, he lists his numerous and life-threatening
experiences of living in Turkey, where marginalized ideas and speech
are easily criminalized, before writing: "So, I know the value of
freedom of speech and the weight of it resides deep inside my flesh
and bones."
Akcam is regarded as one of the first Turkish academics to openly
acknowledge and discuss the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turkish
Ottoman government. He has led a life antagonistic to how the Turkish
government treats its minorities, first working for a leftist journal
scrutinizing his government's mistreatment of the Kurdish minority
in Turkey and then in his unequivocal stance on the Genocide.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/183265/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-salaita-speaking-tour-met-1007-20141007-story.html