"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

FINKELSTEIN LOSES BID FOR TENURE. EH.

We know we really ought to care about this. Academic freedom and what not. But honestly, it couldn't happen to a nicer anti-Semite:
Chicago's DePaul University rejected a Jewish political science professor's tenure request because of the professor's opinions on the Holocaust... Prof. Norman Finkelstein has said that Israel uses the Holocaust as an excuse... [and] called Holocaust survivor and scholar Eli Wiesel a "clown prince."
To be honest, we are kind of torn about this. For someone who's published a fair amount to get rejected because of the content of their work - it goes against deeply, deeply ingrained sensibilities. But we're not free speech absolutists, and that extends to tenure. So on this issue, we'll choose to die on some other hill.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

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