Protesting the Modern Language Association's Anti-Boycott Resolution

Protesting the Modern Language Association's Anti-Boycott Resolution

Protesting the Modern Language Association's Anti-Boycott Resolution

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[This statement was originally published on 30 January 2017. The initial signatories are Modern Language Assocation (MLA) prize winners, current Delegate Assembly members, and past Executive Council members and MLA presidents. The petition is now open to all active and past members of the MLA; for more information, or to sign on to this petition, click here.]

30 January 2017

To the Executive Council of the Modern Language Association:

We write collectively as MLA award winners, current Delegate Assembly members, and past Executive Council members and MLA presidents, representing a diversity of viewpoints on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. While we are honored, variously, to have served the organization and received gratifying recognition for our work, we are also deeply concerned about the approval of an anti-boycott resolution by the majority of members of the Delegate Assembly.

Resolution 2017-1 states that the MLA shall “refrain from endorsing the boycott” against Israel, now and implicitly in perpetuity. We understand that the Executive Council will deliberate as to whether the resolution should be voted upon by the General Membership. In attempting to preempt future discussions of a boycott, 2017-1 adopts a tactic akin to state legislative efforts that have been deemed both unconstitutional and a suppression of free speech rights. It stifles dissent by effectively silencing BDS supporters within the context of MLA governance. Coming from those who claimed that the defeated Boycott Resolution was a denial of academic freedom, 2017-1 truly chills speech. In this it dangerously accedes to the authoritarian, anti-democratic temper of the new Trump administration—surely not a temper the MLA wishes to adopt. Finally, by shielding only the state of Israel from boycott endorsement, the resolution participates in the exceptionalist treatment too often accorded that state. Put bluntly, if passed it would deprive us of a constitutionally-protected form of free speech. Boycotts are a time-honored form of registering protest and disengaging ethically from unconscionable practices.

We are also dismayed by an additional resolution, 2017-3, despite its having been tabled. 2017-3 condemned Hamas and the Palestinian Authority for violating academic freedom, thereby paradoxically supporting the academic freedom of Palestinian scholars only when curtailed by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. In one fell swoop, this resolution, a transparent redirect away from the structures of oppression, would have excused Israel`s role in denying academic freedom to Palestinians while blaming Palestinians themselves for the conditions of Israeli occupation.

A final, emergency resolution was passed condemning the attenuation of academic freedom imminent under the Trump administration. The irony of passing this resolution while just having approved another one designed to suffocate the academic freedom of BDS supporters is self-evident. That the Delegate Assembly at once protested Trump`s agenda while simultaneously reproducing some of its worst attributes signals at best a paradoxical deployment of the standards of academic freedom. At worst, it underscores the ethical confusion of the Delegate Assembly in these matters.

We all agree that resolution 2017-1 should be soundly and without equivocation defeated. The very existence of 2017-1 is a blight on the the ethical orientations of the MLA. We urge the MLA leadership to think critically about its role in challenging the uneven application of academic freedom and therefore not bring before its general membership this resolution that would chill dissent, preempt debate, and prohibit vital on-going conversations about BDS and the role of the US academy.

Sadia Abbas, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, 2014 MLA Prize for First Book

Anjali Arondekar, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2010 Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Stephanie Leigh Batiste, Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2012 William Sanders Scarborough Prize

Lauren Berlant, Professor, University of Chicago, 2013 co-winner Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Ian Balfour, Professor of English, York University, 2003 Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies; Delegate Assembly 2016-2019

Jennifer DeVere Brody, Professor, Stanford University, 2000 Special Citation, Crompton-Noll Award, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Raúl Coronado, Associate Professor, University of Califoria, Berkeley, 2013 MLA Prize for First Book; member and former chair of the Latina/o Literature and Culture Forum

Peter Coviello, Professor, University of Illinois-Chicago, 2016 Honorable Mention, Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Paul Downes, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, 2002 MLA Prize for First Book

Erica Edwards, Associate Professor, UC Riverside, 2014 William Sanders Scarborough Prize.

Nergis Ertürk, Associate Professor, Penn State University, 2012 MLA Prize for First Book, chair 20th and 21st Century Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies Forum.

Elizabeth Freeman, Professor, University of California, Davis, 2014 Norman Foerster Prize, MLA American Literature Section

Rosa-Linda Fregoso, Professor Emeritus/Research Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2004 Winner MLA Book Prize for U.S. Latina/o, Chicana/o Literary and Cultural Studies

Laura G. Gutiérrez Associate Professor University of Texas at Austin, 2010 MLA Book Prize for Latina/o, Chicana/o Literary and Cultural Studies

Ku`ualoha Ho`omanawanui, Associate Professor, University of Hawai’i, 2014-15 Honorable Mention, MLA Book Prize for Studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages

Hsuan Hsu, Professor, University of California, Davis, Honorable Mention, 2009 Norman Foerster Prize, MLA American Literature Section

Virginia Jackson, Professor, ICI Endowed Chair in Rhetoric, University of California, Irvine, 2006 MLA Prize for First Book

Toni Wall Jaudon, Assistant Professor, Hendrix College, 2013 Foerster Prize, MLA American Literature Section

Daniel Justice, Professor, University of British Columbia, 2014-15 MLA Book Prize for Studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages

Regina Kunzel, Professor, Princeton University, 2009 Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Caroline Levine, Professor, Cornell University, 2016 James Russell Lowell Prize

Elizabeth Losh, Associate Professor, College of William and Mary, 2017 Honorable Mention, Mina Shaughnessy Award

Dana Luciano, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, 2008 MLA First Book Prize; 2013 co-winner Crompton-Noll Best Article Award, MLA GL/Q Caucus.

Uri MacMillan, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 William Sanders Scarborough Prize

Meredith Martin, Associate Professor, Princeton University, 2012 MLA First Book Prize

Angela Naimou, Associate Professor, Clemson University, 2015 Honorable Mention, William Sanders Scarborough Prize

Sianne Ngai, Professor, Stanford University, 2013 James Russell Lowell Prize

Ricardo Ortiz, Professor, Georgetown University, 2008 Honorable Mention Alan Bray Memorial prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Crystal Parikh, Associate Professor, New York University, 2009 MLA Book Prize for U.S. Latina/o, Chicana/o Literary and Cultural Studies

Samantha Pinto, Associate Professor, Georgetown University, 2013 William Sanders Scarborough Prize

Jasbir K. Puar, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, 2016 co-winner, Crompton-Noll Best Article Award, MLA GL/Q Caucus; 2012 Michael Lynch Service Award, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Chandan Reddy, Associate Professor, University of Washington, Seattle, 2013 co-winner Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Paul K. Saint-Amour, University of Pennsylvania, 2004 MLA First Book Prize, 2016 Matei Calinescu Prize

Barbara Spackman, Giovanni and Ruth Elizabeth Cecchetti Chair of Italian Studies, University of California, Berkeley; 1998 Howard R. Marraro and Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prizes for Italian Literary Studies; Delegate Assembly 2016-2019.

L.H. Stallings, Associate Professor, University of Maryland, 2016 Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize, MLA GL/Q Caucus

Jordan Alexander Stein, Associate Professor, Fordham University, 2009 Honorable Mention, Norman Foerster Prize, MLA American Literature Section

Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Professor, Rutgers University, 2016 Honorable Mention, Matei Calinescu Prize

Alexander Weheliye, Professor, Northwestern University, 2006 William Sanders Scarborough Prize, 2006

Houston Baker, Distinguished University Professor, Vanderbilt University, 1992 MLA President

Margaret Ferguson, Distinguished Professor, UC Davis, 2014 MLA President

Samer Mahdy Ali, Associate Professor, University of Michigan, Executive Council Member 2012-2016

Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley, Executive Council Member 2000-2003

John Guillory, Silver Professor of English, New York University, Executive Council Member 2004-2007

Richard Ohmann, Professor, Wesleyan University, Executive Council Member 2010-2014

Zahid Chaudhary, Associate Professor, Princeton University, Delegate Assembly 2015-2018

Bishnupriya Ghosh, Professor, Department of English, University of California, Santa Barbara, Delegate Assembly 2017-2020

Yogita Goyal, Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, Delegate Assembly 2016-2019

Salah Hassan, Associate Professor, Michigan State University, Delegate Assembly 2015-2017

Peter Hitchcock, Professor, Baruch College/CUNY Graduate Center, Delegate Assembly 2015-17

Adeline Koh, Associate Professor, Stockton University, Delegate Assembly 2013-18

Alex Lubin, Professor, University of New Mexico, Delegate Assembly 2017-2020

Christopher Newfield, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, Delegate Assembly 2015-2017

Stephen Sheehi, Professor, William and Mary College, Delegate Assembly 2016-2018

Karen Shimakawa, Professor, New York University, Delegate Assembly 2013-2017

Jennifer Wicke, Delegate Assembly 2012-2015, Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee Chair 2014

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412