Submitted by faculty members in MLA-related fields at Israeli universities

This statement, at MLABoycott’s website, is presented anonymously by Israeli academics who support the boycott of Israeli universities.  The faculty are forced to sign anonymously because of a 2011 law passed by the Israeli parliament that prohibits support for BDS among I…[Read more]

Both Judith Butler and Ariella Azoulay have recently posted at MLABoycott’s site, articulating their rationale for supporting the boycott of Israeli academic institutions at this time.

Azoulay writes:

“The boycott targets the Israeli regime, not Israeli citizens, unless they act as representatives of the regime. What, then, is the position of…[Read more]

This open letter by Jeff Sacks, in response to Anthony Apia’s recent blog on the Commons, appeared in the online journal Jadaliyya: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/25811/an-open-letter-to-kwame-anthony-appiah-president-o

Sacks writes:

With all of the talk about academic freedom, what is this “freedom” that we are talking about, if it is n…[Read more]

Greetings, Colleagues!

On behalf of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, I’d like to invite you to the two linked panels we’ve organized for this year’s convention, which we hope will be of interest to many of you:

Friday, 6 January

<b>283. Embattled Rhetorics: Claiming Otherness, Recasting Privilege</b>

<i>12:00 noon–1:15 p…[Read more]

Hello everyone,

We hope you will join us for the following panels organized for the 2017 MLA by the Global Arab and Arab American Literature Forum. They are as follows (sorry for cross-posting)

Session 200: States of In/Security: Global Palestine in Literature, Culture, Art, and Activism
Friday, 6 January, 8:30–9:45 a.m., 104B, Pe…[Read more]

Hello everyone,

We hope you will join us for the following panels organized for the 2017 MLA by the Global Arab and Arab American Literature Forum. They are as follows (sorry for cross-posting)

Session 200: States of In/Security: Global Palestine in Literature, Culture, Art, and Activism<b>
</b>Friday, 6 January, 8:30–9:45 a.m., 104B, Pe…[Read more]

We have received the sad news that the great essayist and art critic John Berger died today, January 2, at age 90. He was a principled supporter of BDS.  In 2006 he wrote what is referred to as The Berger Letter, endorsing the cultural boycott of Israel institutions. It reads in part:

“As Nelson Mandela has pointed out, boycott is not a…[Read more]

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Objections to the MLA Boycott resolution uniformly focus on its supposed abridgement of academic freedom to individual scholars in the US or in Israel without any concern for the educational rights of Palestinians.  Purposefully obfuscating the case, critics of the boycott resolution brush past the resolution’s de…[Read more]

Jewish Studies scholar Daniel Boyarin has issued the following statement about academic boycott:

“I am on record, even on Israeli television, as a supporter of BDS and of a limited academic boycott as well. By limited boycott I mean that I do not countenance boycotts of individuals (Let he who is sinless cast the first stone) but of institutions…[Read more]

In a recent blog issues in his capacity as MLA President, Anthony Appiah addressed the current debate around justice and academic freedom for our Palestinian colleagues.

MLA Colleagues Bill Mullen, Jacques Lezra and Tim Reiss respond here:

Bill Mullen

As a supporter of the MLA resolution to boycott Israeli universities, I would like to make…[Read more]

Dear Colleagues,

Please join the LLC African American Forum for the following panels and cash bar at this year’s MLA in Philadelphia:

41A. Imagining New Literary Histories: Mapping Aesthetics and Poetics in the Black Arts Movement

Thursday, 5 January, 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., 103A, Pennsylvania Convention Center

Presiding: Dana A. Wil…[Read more]

Dear Colleagues,

Please join the LLC African American Forum for the following panels and cash bar at this year’s MLA in Philadelphia:

41A. Imagining New Literary Histories: Mapping Aesthetics and Poetics in the Black Arts Movement

Thursday, 5 January, 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., 103A, Pennsylvania Convention Center

Presiding: Dana A. Williams, How…[Read more]

This panel, about the Caribbean presence (both demographic and discursive) in 1920s Harlem, takes place on Sunday, January 8th at noon in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 112A.

Vanessa K. Valdés, Imani Owens James C. Davis, and Raphael Dalleo will be part of the panel, presenting on Arturo Schomburg, Eulalie Spence, Nella Larsen, and…[Read more]

This panel, about the presence of the Caribbean presence (both demographic and discursive) in 1920s Harlem, takes place on Sunday, January 8th at noon in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 112A.

Vanessa K. Valdés, Imani Owens James C. Davis, and Raphael Dalleo will be part of the panel, presenting on Arturo Schomburg, Eulalie Spence, Nella…[Read more]

The following extracts are from an in-depth report on Cary Nelson’s shifting and often inconsistent pronouncements on academic freedom and boycotts that appeared in Mondoweiss in 2014. It is gratifying to know that Nelson supports and participates in academic boycotts, if under conditions of his own choosing.

Boycotting universities for labor…[Read more]

The Brandeis Center, notorious these days for launching efforts to censor other people’s freedom of speech, has just threatened the MLA with a lawsuit if it passes the boycott resolution. For responses to this clumsy effort at intimidation, see David Lloyd at:

Threat of Legal Action Against MLA

and…[Read more]

<p>MLA Sessions in 2017 Related to BDS–please add to this list and check the first entry out out if you are coming to the Philadelphia MLA Convention! Early and important is Session 53, “Association Presidents’ Perspectives on Boycott,” with speakers from our sister organizations that have strenuously debated and voted in favor of supporting the…[Read more]