Caucus for a New Political Science Issues Statement, Defends Rashid Khalidi Nicholas Kiersey

EMAIL: kiersey@ohio.edu WEB: http://www.apsanet.org/~new/ STATEMENT: http://homepage.mac.com/thenervousfishdown/files/khalidi.html PHONE: (740) 466-5799

The Caucus for a New Political Science issued a statement today condemning recent efforts by John McCain and Sarah Palin to impugn the integrity of Dr. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

Founded at the American Political Science Association’s 1967 annual meeting in Chicago, the Caucus is the oldest organized grouping of progressive political scientists in the United States. The Caucus is united by the idea that Political Science as an academic discipline should be committed to advancing progressive political development.

Today’s statement follows below.

For further information, contact:

Nicholas Kiersey Phone: (740) 466-5799 Email: kiersey@ohio.edu

Christine Kelly Phone: (973) 632-7346 Email: KellyC@wpunj.edu

Jennifer Leigh Disney Phone: (803) 524-9608 Email: disneyj@winthrop.edu

Statement:

The Caucus for a New Political Science (CNPS) hereby expresses its outrage at Sarah Palin and the McCain campaign's efforts this week to impugn the integrity of Dr. Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. Khalidi is one of the world's leading scholars of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian history. As academics who rely on scholarship like Khalidi's for our own research and teaching, we simply cannot let these slurs pass unremarked.

In her efforts to discredit Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Governor Palin tried to suggest that Khalidi is "yet another radical professor" in Obama's circle of friends and associates. This, of course, by way of questioning Obama's patriotism and fitness to serve as President of the United States.

Palin's comments are, at best, suggestive of a deep-rooted ignorance of Middle Eastern affairs. More troubling still, they point to a tendency to engage in a politics of demonization and the possibility of a systematic chilling of academic freedom and freedom of speech, the likes of which we have not seen since the era of Joseph McCarthy.

Khalidi is a scholar of the relationship between cultural identity and political power. In a world where terrorism has become such an irresponsibly used catch-phrase, we need level-headed politicians who are unafraid to examine their own cultural biases. Rashid Khalidi's scholarship on the objectification of and prejudice against Arab culture in Western discourse provides an exemplary set of tools in this mission. That a scholar like Khalidi should have become the target of such ignorant rhetoric as demonstrated by Senator McCain and Governor Palin last week is both embarrassing and disgraceful.

Sincerely,

The Caucus for a New Political Science (CNPS)

Nicholas J. Kiersey, PhD Assistant Professor, Political Science Ohio University, Chillicothe

Christine Kelly, PhD Associate Professor Dept Political Science William Paterson University

Jennifer Leigh Disney, PhD Associate Professor Department of Political Science Winthrop University

Mark Kaswan, C.Phil. Department of Political Science University of California, Los Angeles

Michael McIntyre, PhD Assistant Professor International Studies DePaul University

Foad Izadi, Doctoral Candidate and Instructor Manship School of Mass Communication Louisiana State University

Yoav Peled, PhD Department of Political Science Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv, Israel

Ed Webb, PhD Political Science & International Studies, Dickinson College

Stephen Bronner, PhD Professor, Political Science Rutgers University

John Ehrenberg, PhD Professor of Political Science and Department Chair Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus

Hamideh Sedghi, PhD Visiting Scholar Center for Middle Eastern Studies Harvard University

Sheila Collins, PhD Director, MA in Public Policy and International Affairs Department of Political Science William Paterson University

Sanford Schram, PhD Professor, Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research Bryn Mawr College

Gerard Huiskamp, PhD Chair, Associate Professor of Political Science Wheaton College

Stephen S. Smith, PhD Professor of Political Science Winthrop University

Jacob Segal, PhD Assistant Professor of Political Science Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York

Jacinda Swanson, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Western Michigan University

Victor Wallis, PhD Professor Liberal Arts Dept Berklee College of Music

Bruce E. Caswell, PhD Associate Professor Political Science Department Rowan University

Joe Kling, PhD Professor of Government St. Lawrence University

Amy Linch PhD Candidate Department of Political Science Rutgers University

David Lempert, Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A., E.D. (Hon.) Member, California Bar

John Berg, PhD Chair, Government Department Suffolk University

Beate Sissenich, PhD Assistant Professor Indiana University

R. Claire Snyder-Hall, PhD George Mason University Director, MAIS Program Director of Academics, Higher Education Program Associate Professor of Political Theory

Bron Tamulis Graduate Student University of California--Irvine

Nancy Love, PhD Associate Professor Department of Political Science Penn State

Adolph Reed, PhD Professor, Political Science University of Pennsylvania

Jeff Goodwin, PhD Professor of Sociology New York University

Brian Caterino, PhD Independent Scholar

William F. Grover, PhD Professor, Political Science Saint Michael's College

Tanya R. Austin Illinois State University

Joseph G. Peschek, PhD Professor of Political Science Hamline University

Bruce E Wright, Ph.D Professor Emeritus of Political Science California State University, Fullerton

Margaret E. Farrar, PhD Associate Professor of Political Science Augustana College

Laura Olson, PhD Professor Lehigh University

Immanuel Ness, PhD Professor Department of Political Science Brooklyn College /City University of New York

Benjamin Arditi, PhD Centro de Estudios Politicos Facultad de Ciencias Politicas y Sociales UNAM Mexico

Meredith L. Weiss, PhD Department of Political Science University at Albany, State University of New York

Alethia Jones, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Public Administration & Policy and Department of Political Science University at Albany, State University of New York

Kevin B. Anderson, PhD Professor of Political Science, Sociology, and Women's Studies Purdue University

Patricia Siplon, PhD Professor Department of Political Science Saint Michael's College

Beverly A. Gaddy, PhD Associate Professor, Political Science University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg

Roberto Alejandro, Professor Political Theory University of Massachusetts at Amherst

---------------------------------- Nicholas J. Kiersey, PhD Assistant Professor, Political Science Ohio University, Chillicothe

Office: (740) 774-7270 Mobile: (740) 466-5799