An Overlooked Press Released: He Can Do No Wrong

On Tuesday, November 4th, the Caucus for a New Political Science issued a statement defending Rashid Khalidi. I missed it. But, it should be registered for history. We should know what is "progressive political science" and who are they that practice such.

PRESS RELEASE *** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

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.

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