Fwd: Handbook on academic freedom and Middle East research/teaching
Regina Richter
From: Yasmin Moll <yasmi...@nyu.edu>
Date: Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 7:14 AM
Subject: [mgsg-club] Handbook on academic freedom and Middle East research/teaching
Dear Colleagues,
This short survey is designed to help update the current Handbook on Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility created by the Task Force on Middle Eastern Anthropology, originally written in 2006. We would like to hear about your experiences as scholars of the Middle East, particularly as they pertain to issues of academic freedom and professional responsibility. Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions. You can complete the attached survey as a word document and return to the committee via email (MEHandb...@gmail.com), or click on this link web survey to provide your responses anonymously. All responses will be kept strictly confidential.
1) What is the current climate of academic freedom on your campus and in professional organizations of which you are a member?
2) How does being a scholar of the Middle East impact your ability to teach and research issues important to you?
3) Have you experienced any situations where you felt pressured, intimidated or limited in what you could say about topics relating to the Middle East? If so, please share your experience and any helpful advice for others who may face similar challenges in the future.
4) The Handbook’s first edition included several cases in which academic freedom had been publicly challenged and defended, in order to show the variety of forms this may take, including media exposure, mediation, and court cases. Do you know of any cases that have occurred since 2006 that would provide practical lessons in defending academic freedom?
5) How have the on-going events of the “Arab Spring” impacted your teaching and research? Have you revised existing syllabi to account for these socio-political transformations? Have these fast-paced developments led you to draw more on blogs, online forums, Youtube videos, etc, in the classroom? Do you find that these events have had an impact on how students think and write about the Middle East as a whole?
6) Increasingly prevalent forms of social media, like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, present new outlets and forms of engagement for scholars and activists, but also raise questions about privacy, as well as control over and access to information. Have you found your use of these media to present any problems in this regard?
7) If you have experienced difficulty obtaining research funding in the past, have the circumstances ever suggested institutional or political pressure to circumscribe the topic or location of your research?
8) Are you willing to be contacted by the committee to follow up on information provided? If so, please include contact information.