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August 21, 2007
Prof. Nadia Abu El Haj and Related Issues I Don't Know Much About
The other day a reader sent me an email asking me to "weigh in on the controversy surrounding a book by Nadia Abu El Haj." The book is Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society. I have been reading the news about Professor Abu El Haj's book but I haven't written on it for one simple reason, I haven't read her book. And my reading list is already so long that I may never get to it.
So, rather than weigh in, I will cop out. I do hope that my cop-out contributes in some small way to furthering the discussion. Because I have not read her book, everything I know about it is second hand and therefore anything I say about it may reflect those third party reports and analyses more than the book itself. My impression from what I have read is that Abu El Haj tortures her evidence and allows her unambiguous political position to color her interpretations but perhaps no more than do many of those participants in part of the "archaeological practice" she chastises. To her credit, her political positions are apparently very clear. In this context, her work may be a useful corrective to the excesses of "Biblical Archaeology" and particularly Biblical Archaeology's all too easy extrapolation into contemporary political issues, issues about which Biblical Archaeology (or any other archaeology) actually has almost nothing to say.
My own suspicion is that we would not be discussing Abu El Haj's book in the way it is currently being discussed if it where not coupled with the seemingly manufactured controversy about her tenure at Barnard College, an affiliate of Columbia University. There has even been a petition against granting her tenure and another one supporting her tenure. I believe the second is in response to the first. Rumor has it that her college faculty has recommended her for tenure and the final decision is now in the hands of the University.
My own involvement in tenure decisions, like my knowledge of Abu El Haj's book, is all second hand. But my second hand knowledge is based on the experience of several people who I know very well and who have gone through the tenure process or are now going through it. In many cases, the ethics of granting tenure would make a Barbary pirate blush. But when academic departments make tenure decisions through the rigorous application of established criteria and departmental tradition the system works for everyone. When properly administered, tenure decisions tend to emulate a meritocracy. Only athletic competition comes closer. In my view, the tenure recommendation of an academic department that follows best practices and neither always grants tenure nor never grants tenure (and there are examples of both) should not second guessed by anyone, including alumni who may disagree with the views of a given candidate. I don't know if Abu El Hay's department meets these criteria, but I'll bet it does.
Those alumni who started the petition drive against Abu El Hay's tenure should reflect on something that I'm sure they paid no attention to as students. Part of the positive experience that keeps them close to their alma mater was faculty governance in academic affairs. Like the Constitution, faculty governance in academic affaires is worth defending even if on occasion a given decision seems to go against one's own pet positions.
Posted by Duane Smith at August 21, 2007 10:27 AM | Read more on Archaeology |
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