2023

Review of Amahl A. Bishara, Crossing A Line: Laws, Violence, and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression (Stanford: University of Stanford Press, 2022). Barcelona (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2003, Amahl A. Bishara, currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tufts University, arrived in Palestine as a PhD student to conduct fieldwork. After […]

Education

University of Michigan Won’t Pay Striking Grads, Rejects Proposals, as Tensions Rise and Professors delay Submission of Grades

Michigan Advance

By: Jon King – Updated, 10:42 a.m., 4/24/23 ( Michigan Advance) – Negotiations have hit an impasse between the University of Michigan and the union representing graduate student instructors, as tensions escalated last week into a confrontation requiring police intervention. The strike by the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) AFT Local 3550 began March 29, […]

Education

Department of History, University of Michigan, Delays Grade Posting until May 12th in Support of Striking Grads

contributors

Monday, April 24, 2023 To the University President, Provost, and Administration: We are deeply troubled by reports that the administration intends to punish faculty, staff, and department chairs who refuse to assign grades for work that they have not personally assessed. We find these actions to be an infringement on faculty autonomy, and we reject […]

China

Peace may finally be returning to Yemen, but can a fractured Nation be put back Together?

The Conversation

By Leena Adel, Curtin University and Ben Rich, Curtin University | – Last month, China brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a landmark deal that restored full diplomatic ties between the two bitter rivals. There was hope the detente could also bring an end to one of the world’s longest-running – and virtually […]

Archaeology

Egypt in uproar over Netflix’s “Black” Cleopatra, but Race is the Wrong Lens Anyway

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor ( Mustafa Amin at the Akhbar al-Yawm [News Today] reviews the controversy in Egypt over Jada Pinkett Smith’s African Queens series of documentaries on Netflix. The first installment focused on Njinga, ruler of an early modern West African kingdom in what is now northern Angola. The second treats Cleopatra, and the trailer insists […]

Canada

Recent Mosque attacks raise Questions about the Affinity between White Supremacy and Far-Right Hindu Nationalism

The Conversation

By Zeinab Farokhi, University of Toronto | – (The Conversation) – During Ramadan, a man attacked a mosque in Markham, Ont. He allegedly yelled slurs, tore up a Qu’ran, and attempted to run down worshippers in his vehicle. Some people on Twitter have raised the idea that the attacker was connected to Hindu extremist groups; […]

Israel/ Palestine

Cementing Gaza’s History by Sketching its Ancient Sites

Middle East Monitor

Mohammed Asad ( Middle East Monitor) – Gaza is a region we hear about often but how much do we know about its past and history? This is something architect Wala’a Shublaq is looking to change as she sketches ancient sites and helps Palestinians in Gaza reconnect with their past. The 27-year-old urban […]

China

The Era of Great Power Victory in Wars ended in 1945 and a Wise Power would Avoid them

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com) – I was born on July 20, 1944, amid a vast global conflict already known as World War II. Though it ended with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 before I could say much more than “Mama” or “Dada,” in some strange fashion, I grew up at war. Living […]

Climate Crisis

On Earth Day, 69% of Americans want Carbon Neutrality, with Minorities and Youth in the Vanguard