4 August 2025 Dean Baker, chief economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, presents a highly plausible explanation of Trump’s objective in attacking Columbia, Harvard and other leading universities in America and why they are unwise to yield to him. Donald Trump’s Harvard Extortion and the Kneel-Liberals Jul 29, 2025 By Dean Baker The…
2 August 2025 Professor Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Middle East Studies at Columbia University, has issued the following open letter to Professor Claire Shipman, the Acting President, reprinted here from the Guardian, explaining why he will not teach his popular course this autumn. I spent decades at Columbia. I’m withdrawing…
1 August 2025 Marianne Hirsch is the William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Professor in the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, past president of the Modern Language Association and an authority on the holocaust. Her explanation of the dilemma the Columbia University settlement with the Administration…
1 August 2025 The Government promised to get tough with universities that ‘no platform’ speakers and has now introduced severe penalties for offending institutions, as this article in The Evening Standard describes. No doubt, this will impress some members of the public. But – as the article fails to mention – almost all the instances…
31 July 2025 Palestinian students in Gaza, where the universities have been destroyed by Israel using British war materials, are finding it impossible to take up places in British universities because the British government will not adapt its visa requirements to meet present circumstances, as this report in the Guardian explains. This is symptomatic of…
29 July 2025 Prominent Israelis from the political and cultural establishment have issued a remarkably frank statement appealing to the world to impose swingeing sanctions to persuade their own government to accept a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Here is the Guardian‘s report on their appeal. Ironically, it appeared on the same day as Prime Minister…
29 July 2025 A report remarkable for its historical perspective on the deepseated character of racism at Edinburgh University is encouraging its administrators to think again about policies which have long favoured Israel to the disadvantage of Palestinians. Here is the Guardian‘s report on this hopeful development. Edinburgh University could unadopt antisemitism definition after report…
29 July 2025 At least 400 scholars have joined the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Crisis Network, calling for government action to end the appalling crisis in Gaza. Here is their appeal published today in the Guardian. As scholars of genocide, we demand an end to Israel’s atrocities Taner Akçam, Marianne Hirsch and Michael Rothberg Within…
29 July 2025 Columbia University has signed a new agreement with the Administration which restores access to federal research funding while making large, ill-defined concessions. The following survey of opinion among Columbia faculty in the Columbia Spectator reveals some of the largest costs including not least the University’s adoption of the IHRA definition on antisemitism….
1 July 2025 The International Sociological Association has suspended the Israeli Sociological Society (ISS) from membership. This follows pressure from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the Moroccan Sociological Association and many other organisations in the run up to the Fifth World Forum of Sociology, scheduled at Mohammed V…