UW Braces for Challenge to Academic Freedom

News and Opinion for Democrats Against Bush - Part I b

UW Braces for Challenge to Academic Freedom

' Congress is debating legislation that would give the Department of Homeland Security a key role in administering area-studies centers across the nation. ...

' House Republicans see area-studies centers as anti-American, and the bill proposes to create an "International Educational Advisory Board" to oversee their work. Board members would include representatives of Homeland Security, the Defense Department, and the National Security Agency.....'

Seattle Weekly November 26 - December 2, 2003

Education: When Freedom Is Academic

The postcolonial U.S. Congress wants a say in the curricula of postcolonial studies.

by Hasan Jafri

The complete article is currently (3/24/04) available on the Seattle Weekly website at-- http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0348/031126_news_postcolonial.php

Opening words--

POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES is the broad academic field that scrutinizes the experience of people who were subjected to colonial rule. Indian-born Salman Rushdie is postcolonial. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini tried to kill him, and he was postcolonial, too.

The University of Washington is not postcolonial, but like Rushdie and Khomeini, its postcolonial-studies stock is soaring. The university's Title VI grants for language and area studies grew to a record $3.5 million this year, up from $2.9 million in 2002.

But to paraphrase Dickens (not postcolonial), the best of times for the University of Washington is also the worst of times. Congress is debating legislation that would give the Department of Homeland Security a key role in administering area-studies centers across the nation. With its many area-studies and language offerings, in subjects as diverse as Urdu and Finnish, UW is bracing for the new law. ...

info@seattleweekly.com

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0348/031126_news_postcolonial.php

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.