[Linganth] Supporting change at the AAA

[Elise Berman]

Dear SLA members:


Below you will see a letter asking you to support a change in by-laws of
the AAA.  The changes proposed are below as is a brief rationale for
them, and a link to sign.  This move is in response to the recent vote by
the AAA to boycott and sanction universities in Israel. Especially in light
of recent events, I hope that you might follow the link, sign the petition,
and support the organization considering this change in the AAA by-laws.



Very best wishes
Elise Berman (incoming linguistics seat on the AAA nominations committee)



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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As you know, the AAA membership recently voted to boycott and sanction
universities in a single nation, Israel. Arguments against the boycott of
any academic institutions were previously posted on the AAA website.
Anthropology as a discipline was founded on the commitment to promoting
understanding and communication across cultural boundaries. Academic
boycotts violate this basic principle.



To address this concern, a next step is to launch an effort to amend the
By-Laws of the AAA to prohibit any academic boycotts by the American
Anthropological Association (Article I, Section 1). This amendment to the
AAA By-Laws will reflect a commitment to the free exchange of ideas among
academics, which is core to the discipline of Anthropology.

In order for there to be a full AAA membership vote to amend the AAA
By-Laws, 250 signatures from AAA members are required. Please visit the
following website to endorse a vote on the proposed amendment (
https://forms.gle/5p7CDmZTCujMBbzU6).



If you sign this document, and 250 signatures are received, it will come to
a vote of the broader AAA membership. At that point, all AAA members will
have the opportunity to vote on the proposed new By-Law.



Sincerely,

Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Carleton College

Aliya Glatt, University of California Los Angeles

Harvey E. Goldberg, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Alma Gottlieb, University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign and Brown
University

Sergei Kan, Dartmouth College

Melvin Konner, Emory University

Jill E. Korbin, Case Western Reserve University

Robert Lemelson, University of California Los Angeles

Fran Markowitz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

David M. Rosen, Farleigh Dickenson University

Cynthia Saltzman, Rutgers University-Camden

Richard A. Shweder, University of Chicago



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Proposed New AAA By-Law against Academic Boycotts:

“AAA is an academic and professional association and a community of
scholars who support open inquiry, free speech, and the unrestricted
exchange of ideas on a global scale. In furtherance of our commitment to
academic freedom, the

American Anthropological Association opposes and does not participate in
academic boycotts."



****************************************************

Rationale for the New AAA By-Law:

The American Anthropological Association should uphold the sanctity of the
principle of academic freedom that enables and protects the ability of
scholars to write, teach, and pursue research. This right must be protected
by recognizing that academic boycotts pose a threat not only to
institutions, but to the students, scholars, and staff who work there and
who are the lifeblood of universities. Where governments or institutions
engage in unethical practices, including limiting academic freedom of their
own students and faculty, those policies and truths should be exposed and
critiqued, especially by scholars with regional expertise. Nonetheless, the
AAA should not formally endorse a broad academic boycott of these
institutions, whose human capital would be directly affected. Instead, in
accord with the principles of academic freedom and open inquiry, the AAA
should support open lines of communication, the free exchange of ideas, and
a diversity of viewpoints among scholars globally.



As the AAUP has stated, “The form that noncooperation with an academic
institution takes inevitably involves a refusal to engage in academic
discourse with teachers and researchers, not all of whom are complicit in
the policies that are being protested. Moreover, an academic boycott can
compound a regime’s suppression of freedoms by cutting off contacts with an
institution’s or a country’s academics. In addition, the academic boycott
is usually at least once removed from the real target. Rarely are
individuals or even individual institutions the issue. What is being sought
is a change in state policy. The issue, then, is whether those faculty or
ideas that could contribute to changing state policy are harmed when
communication with outside academic institutions is cut off and how to
weigh that harm against the possible political gains the pressure of an
academic boycott might secure.”



The AAUP argued that the continued exchange of faculty, students, and ideas
is more conducive to academic freedom in the long run than is an academic
boycott. This freedom is what we share and treasure as academics, beyond
specific ideologies or political views we might espouse as individuals. In
accord with this rationale, a new By-law stating that the AAA does not
endorse academic boycotts is warranted and necessary.



We invite you to vote in favor of this new addition to the AAA By-laws.
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