Stand Against Apartheid Lawfare!
Stand with the American Studies Association!
#boycottracism!
The Louis D. Brandeis Center is engaged in lawfare against members of the American Studies Association, against the association itself, and against the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (
http://www.usacbi.org/). This lawfare takes the form of a frivolous and racist lawsuit.
As experts at Palestine Legal have explained: “The Brandeis Center is seeking to fix the failed theory of their original lawsuit against the American Studies Association (ASA) by asking the court for permission to add new theories and new defendants. Doubling down on the harassment campaign, the Brandeis Center is also on a McCarthyist media blitz accusing ASA scholars of a covert campaign to take over the ASA” (
https://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/4/20/palestine-legal-statement-on-lawsuit-against-asa).
This lawsuit, as the brief filed by the ASA notes, “is being used as a platform from which Plaintiffs and their supporters can mine for data with which to harass anyone whose views differ from the Plaintiffs’ and their supporters.”
In March 2017, the court dismissed most of the Brandeis Center’s charges against the ASA. The court found that the ASA resolution was “enacted for academic purposes” as it “was aimed both at encouraging academic freedom for Palestinians and strengthening relations between American institutions and Palestinians.” And yet, the Brandeis Center has persisted in its harassment. The Center filed a motion this November 2017, naming further members of the ASA who, we note, are predominantly queer, indigenous/Palestinian, and women of color, despite the fact that those working towards the resolution also included white (and specifically white Jewish) ASA members, and although an overwhelming majority of the ASA membership voted in favor of the resolution.
The motion’s charges distort a democratic political process. The ASA voted by a 2-1 margin of the membership in favor of boycott after a year of open, public debate within the Association. The Lawsuit attempts to describe this vote as a secret conspiracy of deception, one in which elected ASA leaders “infiltrated” the organization and engaged in “an illegal, hostile takeover” of the ASA. Such charges ignore the several years of public and open grassroots organizing by established caucuses within the ASA; the panels, town hall and open meetings set up to educate the membership and debate the resolution; and finally an unprecedented and overwhelmingly positive vote by the entire membership when passing a resolution requires only the support of the National Council. Indeed, the “secret” process that the plaintiffs are “unearthing” through harassing methods and lawfare is available in the open and detailed account given in the recently published book Boycott! (
https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520294899). Detailed public accounts of the ASA campaign have also been published in the New York Times (
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/education/scholars-group-endorses-an-academic-boycott-of-israel.html), the Chronicle of Higher Education (
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Debate-Significance/143645), and the Association’s own flagship journal, American Quarterly (
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/605053).
In the wake of the resolution, the ASA membership has increased, and the BDS movement itself is steadily gaining popular and academic support. Since the ASA vote, the National Women’s Studies Association, the National Association of Chicano/a Studies, and the Critical Ethnic Studies Association have all voted to boycott Israeli universities.
With its lawsuit, the Brandeis Center continues its sustained and increasingly desperate campaign to criminalize any criticism of Israel, or any Palestine solidarity work. Their unscrupulous actions that support practices of settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and white supremacy, McCarthyism, Islamophobia, and racism in the US find their counterpart in the actions of Donald Trump and the “alt right.”
Please take a stand to resist such forces! Please sign below to express solidarity with those being targeted, censured, and held singly responsible for a democratic process and vote. And, in doing so, show your support as well for the ASA and for the right to engage in BDS organizing free of harassment, lawfare, and racist and colonial campaigns of intimidation!
(Please check for spelling and punctuation, as what you type is how it will appear.)
*Organizational Endorsers
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Labor for Palestine
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jewish Voice for Peace
Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP) France
Faculty for Palestine (Toronto, Canada)
*Signatories
Cynthia Franklin
Department of English, University of Hawai'i
ASA Member
David Palumbo-Liu
Stanford University
ASA Member
Bill V. Mullen
American Studies, Purdue University
ASA Member
Heike Schotten
University of Massachusetts Boston
ASA Member
Terri Ginsberg
Film Program, The American University in Cairo
Rima Najjar
Al-Quds University (retired)
Adam Miyashiro
Literature, Stockton University
David Klein
Department of Mathematics, California State University Northridge
Herman De Ley (BACBI)
Philosophy & Moral Science, Ghent Univ., Belgium
Craig Willse
Cultural Studies, George Mason University
ASA Member
Bertell Ollman
Dept. of Politics, NYU
David Lloyd
English, University of California at Riverside
ASA Member
Tithi Bhattacharya
Department of History, Purdue University
Jean O’Brien
University of Minnesota
ASA Member
R. Karl
New York university, History
Bret Benjamin
University at Albany, SUNY
Adam Waterman
Department of English, American University of Beirut
ASA Member
Shelley Streeby
UCSD
ASA Member
Liron Mor
Comparative Literature, UC Irvine
Jane Glaubman
English, Cornell
ASA Member
Rajini Srikanth
English, University of Massachusetts Boston
ASA Member
Eric Covey
American Studies, Miami University
ASA Member
Victoria Delaney
Binghamton University ABD
Candace Fujikane
English Department, University of Hawaiʻi
ASA Member
Hester Eisenstein
Sociology, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Kay Gabriel
Princeton University
Nada Elia
David McNally
Political Science, York University
Pranav Jani
Department of English, The Ohio State University
S. Shankar
English, U of Hawaii`i at Manoa
Margot Weiss
American Studies & Anthropology, Wesleyan University
Matthew Garrett
English & American Studies, Wesleyan University
Kerwin Kaye
Sociology Department, Wesleyan University
ASA Member
Rabab Abdulhadi
Arab & Muslim Ethnicities & Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University
ASA Member
Sabina Wildman
UC Santa Cruz
Shelley Streeby
UCSD
ASA Member
Timothy J Reiss
Department of Comparative Literature, New York University (Emeritus)
Patricia Penn Hilden
University of California, Berkeley
ASA Member
Aaron Jaffe
The Juilliard School
Jeff Jacobs
Political Science, Columbia University
Julie Rak
Dept English/Film Studies, University of Alberta
Alex Lubin
ASA Member
Ofer Neiman
Elizabeth Goetz
CUNY Graduate Center
Laura Lyons
University of Hawai'i
ASA Member
Maggie Vascassenno
Jordy Rosenberg
University of Massachusetts
ASA Member
Andrew Ross
Professor of American Studies, NYU
ASA Member
Jonathan Rosenhead
Operational Research, London School of Economics
Kadji Amin
Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Emory University
ASA Member
Christipher Patterson
Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist
ASA Member
Jeffrey Melnick
American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston
ASA Member
Richard Falk
Albert G. Milbank Prof. Emeritus of International Law at Princeton U and Visiting Distinguished Prof. in Global and International Studies at UC, Santa Barbara
Caren Kaplan
American Studies, UC Davis
ASA Member
Natalia Deeb-Sossa
Department of Chicana/o Studies, University of California at Davis
Noah Guynn
French & Italian, University of California, Davis
Baki Tezcan
History; University of California, Davis
Parama Roy
Department of English, UC Davis
Britt Rusert
UMass Amherst
ASA Member
Scott Kurashige
University of Washington Bothell
ASA Member
Roy Perez
Willamette University
ASA Member
Mary-Jo Nadeau
PhD Sociology (York University,)
Kasturi Ray
Women and Gender Studies, San Francisco State University
Ahmed Abbes
Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Paris France
Victor Mendoza
Women's Studies and English, University of Michigan
ASA Member
Barry Trachtenberg
Wake Forest University
Michel Habib
Finance, University of Zurich
Alexandra Chasin
Lit St, The New School; Brandeis BA ‘84
ASA Member
Sarah
City University of New York
Andrew Meyer
Department of Politics, UC Santa Cruz
Dr. Edwin E. Daniel
Professor Emeritus, Univerity of Alberta
E. Natalie Rothman
Dept. of History, University of Toronto
Gina Crandell
Northeastern University
Merrill Cole
English, Western Illinois University
Alan Wald
H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan
ASA Member
James C Faris
Director Emeritus, University of Connecticut Program in Middle Eastern Languages and Area Studies
MARIA COTERA
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
ASA Member
Evelyn Alsultany
University of Michigan
ASA Member
Glenn Hendler
English and American Studies, Fordham University
ASA Member
Martin Ponce
English, Ohio State University
R. A. Shoaps
Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Prof Charles E. Butterworth
Emeritus Professor, Department of Government & Politics, University of Maryland
Susette Min
Department of Asian American Studies, UC Davis
ASA Member
Amy Kaplan
English, University of Pennsylvania
ASA Member, ASA Elected Position
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Department of American Culture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
ASA Member
James Newman
former Assistant Professor, University Of Illinois Medical School
Arturo Giraldez
Modern Language and Lit. Dept. University of the Pacific
Jeff Fort
Department of French, UC Davis
Cyrus Bina, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics
University of Minnesota (Morris Campus)
Thomas Hayes
Ohio University
Lisa Daily
New York University
ASA Member
Kayla Keener
Cultural Studies, George Mason University
ASA Member
Jonathan Graubart
Political Science, San Diego State
Khoi Nguyen
George Mason University
ASA Member
Brooke Lober
UC Berkeley Gender and Women's Studies
ASA Member
Abigail Boggs
Sociology, Wesleyan University
ASA Member
Basak Durgun
George Mason University
ASA Member
Sophia Azeb
New York University
ASA Member
Dennis Kortheuer
History emeritus Cal State U Long Beach
Ryan Bowerman
Cultural Studies, George Mason University
David B. Chandler
Mathematics, Widener University
Sofya Aptekar
Sociology, UMass Boston
Elsa Auerbach
Professor Emerita, Univ of Massachusetts Boston
Howard Winant
Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
ASA Member
Caroline West
Cultural Studies, George Mason University
Malini Schueller
English Department, univ of florida
ASA Member
Aren Aizura
Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota
ASA Member
Andres Fabian Henao Castro
Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston
Ofelia Cuevas
UC Davis
ASA Member
Elora Chowdhury
Associate Professor, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies UMass Boston
Marilyn Frankenstein
Retired, UMass/Boston, College of Pubic and Community Service
Michael Keefer
Professor Emeritus, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph
Martha London
University of Massachusetts Boston
Dawn Peterson
History, Emory
ASA Member
John King
Michael Letwin
Stephen Roddy
Asian Studies, USF
Hassan Fouda
Ivan Huber
Emeritus, Biology, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ., Madison, NJ
Javier Barquin Ruiz
Universidad de Malaga
Aneil Rallin
Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Soka University of America
ASA Member
Les Levidow
Development Policy and Practice, Open University, UK
Martin A. Billeter
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Jennifer Doyle
English, UC Riverside
ASA Member
John Chalcraft
Government Department, LSE
Lorenzo Feltrin
PhD student, University of Warwick
Mayssoun Sukarieh
Emeritus Prof. Andrew Paul Gutierrez
Ecosystem Science, University of California at Berkeley
Yi-Chun Tricia Lin
Women's Studies, Southern Connecticut State University
Amr Shalakany
Department of Law, The American University in Cairo
George Katsiaficas
Vida Samiian
Linguistics, California State University, Fresno
Sami Hermez
Liberal Arts, Northwestern University in Qatar
Mara T. Horowitz
History Department, Purchase College SUNY
Salah Hassan
English, Michigan State University
ASA Member
Paola Bacchetta
U C Berkeley
Maurice Stierl, PhD
Nicola Pratt
Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
Lauren Muller
City College of San Francisco
ASA Member
Jodi Byrd
English/Gender & Women's Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ASA Member
Myka Tucker-Abramson
English, University of Warwick
Tim Mahoney
MA Philosophy, CUNY Graduate Center
Deema Shehabi
RAWI member
Kelvin Bland RIBA
APJP
Philip Metres
English
Elmaz Abinader
VONA/Voices
Ebony Coletu
English, Pennsylvania State University
ASA Member
Javier Arbona
American Studies, UC Davis
ASA Member
Cornelia Flora
Sociology, Kansas State University
ASA Member
William Davison
Joel Reinstein
Jamal Nimer
University of Chicago
Rachel Brown
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Marilyn Hacker
Professor (Emerita) CUNY Graduate Center
Penny Rosenwasser
Interdisciplinary Studies, City College of San Francisco
Jodi Melamed
Marquette University, ASA National Council
ASA Member, ASA Elected Position
Elliott Leib
Ivar Ekeland
Former President, University of Paris-Dauphine
Johanna Bockman
Global Affairs, George Mason University
Rosalyn Amenta
Women's Studies, Southern CT State University
Shauna Rigaud
PHD Student, George Mason University
Régis Pomès
University of Toronto
Issam alyamani
ASA Elected Position
Wilfrid Denis
University of Saskatchewan (St. Thomas More College)
Kathy Wazana
MFA, York University
Harry Smaller
Faculty of Education, York University, Toronto
Prabha Khosla
Gender Justice Advocate
Richard Seaford
University of Exeter
Colin Dayan
Vanderbilt University
ASA Member
Rakhshanda Saleem
UMass Boston
Lawrence Davidson
West Chester U.
Amy Osika
Historical Studies New School
Timothy Gibson
George Mason University
James Dickins
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds (United Kingdom)
Chandler Davis
Mathematics, University of Toronto