Chandler Davis (you might know him better as Mr. Natalie Zemon Davis) is one of the unsung victims of McCarthyism. He was fired from his job as a professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan for refusing to testify before HUAC. Ellen Schrecker discusses his case at length in No Ivory Tower. Anyway, hes written a letter to Chancellor Wise you should all read: I write from a rich experience of attacks on academic freedom; I have seen the damage that enforcing conformity can do to intellectual life. Among the victims was myself. My expulsion from American academe in 1954 has been thoroughly refuted by history, so that I speak not with the bitterness of any unresolved grievance, but with the immediacy that personal memory gives....Even if you could justify breaking your University’s commitment to Prof. Salaita –which you can not– you should reject with indignation the calls to wrench him from the community. He is an active opponent of anti-Semitism and other bigotry, as you must know from his writings. We need him by our side.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 03:20:20 +0000
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