You Can Fight Back Against the ASA Boycott

By now many of us are aware that the American Studies Association (ASA) has voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions.  We are also aware of how shameful and ludicrous this proposed boycott is.  To briefly recap:

1) Boycotting Israeli institutions while proposing to do no such thing with the worst human rights violators such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Myanmar, Sudan, China, and others is simply antisemitic.

2) Academic boycotts are an assault on the idea of free inquiry, and punish and disable the very people who are essential for working toward a resolution of the conflict.

3) Boycotts of Israel are sponsored by the BDS movement which opposes a two-state solution to the conflict.

4) In spite of their name, the ASA is no longer a mainstream organization and most serious scholars left it in the 1980s and 1990s.

5) The proposed boycott was only approved by 1/4 of ASA's membership, yet the leadership persisted in endorsing it.

Fortunately, there IS something that well meaning individuals can do to fight back against this misuse and abuse of scholarship.

As discussed at the Legal Insurrection blog, the ASA relies on the support and implied credibility of its  83 "institutional members" which are a diverse array of universities and colleges.  As proposed by former Harvard University President Larry Summers, and already carried out by two institutions, Penn State University Harrisburg and Brandeis University, universities can resign their membership in the ASA and forbid the use of university funds for attending ASA meetings.

Such a move by many or all of the ASA's institutional members would effectively disable the organization and send a very powerful message that American higher education does not support a boycott of Israeli institutions or the BDS regime.

So, I urge anyone who is an alumnus of, or currently affiliated with, any of the 83 member institutions to contact their institution and encourage them to resign from the ASA and prohibit funds from being used to support it.

I will provide the list of institutions below so you can see if one of your alma maters or current institution is on it.  If it is, I suggest sending a message to the President, the President's Chief of Staff or similar, and the Director of Alumni Relations or similar.  Keep it polite and positive, and let them know how much the institution means to you.  Here is the message I sent to my undergrad alma mater, which is one of those on the list (feel free to copy relevant parts):

Dear President Sexton, Chief of Staff Baum, and Vice President Perillo,

I am contacting you as a proud NYU Alumnus (degree, school, year, major), booster, and donor.  I am concerned about the recent move by the American Studies Association (ASA) to boycott Israeli academic institutions, and would like to learn about NYU’s reaction and any response going forward, given that NYU is an institutional member of the ASA.

As I am sure you are aware, such boycotts are the antithesis of free academic inquiry, and also unfairly place blame solely on Israel for a complex regional conflict. 

It is a source of pride for me that NYU has a very active partnership with Israel via NYU Tel Aviv.  I assume that the NYU leadership is entirely opposed to this boycott move.  I would like to know if the University’s has formulated a strategy to counter it. 

I suggest a move that would be very appropriate and send a powerful message, which is to 1) withdraw NYU’s institutional membership in the ASA and 2) forbid the use of University funds to attend ASA events or to publish in ASA fora.  This is a strategy already undertaken by another ASA institutional member, Penn State University Harrisburg, and has been proposed by former Harvard University President Larry Summers. 

As I embark on my own academic career, my thoughts naturally turn to my alma mater NYU and its role as a leading global university in this context.  Please let me know the University’s opinions on this issue.

Sincerely,

name (school, year)

The institutional members of the ASA, as listed in the ASA's materials, are:

Alberta Institute for American Studies
Bard Graduate Center
Boston College
Boston University
Brandeis University
Brigham Young University
Brown University
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Long Beach
Carnegie-Mellon University
Centre for the Study of the United States
College of Staten Island, CUNY
College of William and Mary
Cornell University
Crystal Bridge Museum of American Art
CUNY Graduate Center, American Studies Certificate Program
DePaul University
Dickinson College
Eccles Centre for American Studies, The British Library
Emory University
Fordham University
Franklin College of Indiana
George Washington University
Georgetown University
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Indiana University
Kennesaw State University
Kenyon College
Lehigh University
The Long Island Museum
Michigan State University, English Department
Middlebury College
New York University
Northwestern University
Penn State University, Harrisburg
Princeton University
Ramapo College
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Rider University
Roger Williams University
Rowan College of New Jersey
Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Saint John Fisher College
Saint Louis University
Saint Olaf College
Skidmore College
Smith College
Sophia University
St. Francis College
Stanford University, American Studies Program
Stanford University, Green Library
Stetson University
Students At The Center
Temple University
Trinity College, Hartford, CT.
Tufts University
University of Alabama
University of California, San Diego
University of Delaware
University of Hawaii
University of Iowa
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
University of Minnesota
University of Mississippi
University of New Mexico
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Oklahoma Honors College
University of Southern California
University of Southern Mississippi
University of Texas, Austin
University of Texas, Dallas
University of Utah
University of Western Ontario
University of Wyoming
Vanderbilt University
Vassar
Washington State University
Washington University, St. Louis
Western Connecticut State University
Willamette University
Winterthur Program in Early American Culture Youngstown State University

If one of your alma maters or current institution is on the list, you can take a stand for academic freedom and reasonably discourse about the Middle East.  Even if your institution is not an institutional member, you can still contact them to encourage the prohibition on university resources being used for ASA events.  If we encourage our institutions to push back, we can strike a decisive blow against academic boycotts of Israel.