Taking Back the Academy!: History of Activism, History as Activism

236 Pages·2004·1.1 MB·English

by  Jim & M Downs

“Disillusioned by an academy that too often seemed to be divorced from
the social realities of the outside world, James Downs and Jennifer
Manion sought to locate a tradition of historian-activists from which
students and scholars might take inspiration. The result is a challenging
and engaging collection of essays that is essential reading for aspiring and
seasoned academics alike. Taking Back the Academy brings together a
dynamic cast of scholars and activists representing a broad range of
generational, institutional, and disciplinary backgrounds. They invite us
to consider the multiple ways in which colleges and universities can
stimulate social change.
“While celebrating the achievements of past scholar-activists, this book
also offers a searching look at the present state of the field and a
provocative call for future action. In an age of increasingly demanding
hiring and tenure committees, Taking Back the Academy challenges
scholars to recognize that their duties nonetheless extend far beyond the
profession. In considering the broad social and political responsibilities of
intellectuals in society, this book calls for a revitalized definition of what
it means to be a scholar-citizen in the twenty-first century. For scholars in
the humanities, that call could not be more timely. Alternatively maligned
as politically irrelevant or dangerously subversive, historians and other
stewards of society’s subjective truths increasingly must be prepared to
articulate—and defend—their function in today’s marketplace of ideas
and corporatized universities. Taking Back the Academy reflects honestly
on the perils of uncritically linking scholarship and politics, but it
ultimately insists that both as a matter of civic duty and professional
survival historians must unapologetically embrace opportunities to put
the past in open dialogue with the pressing needs of the present.”
Jacquelyn Hall, past president Organization of American Historians and
Spruill Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

TAKING BACK
ACADEMY!
THE
E D I T E D B Y
JIM DOWNS &
JENNIFER MANION
ROUTLEDGE New York • London
Published in 2004 by
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Copyright © 2004 by Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Taking back the academy! : history of activism, history as activism /
James T. Downs, Jr., and Jennifer Manion, editors.
p. cm.
Papers derived from a conference held at Columbia University in New York,
N.Y. in 2002.
ISBN 0-415-94810-X (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-415-94811-8 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Historians—United States—Political activity—Congresses. 2. Learning and
scholarship—Political aspects—United States—Congresses. 3. Student movements—
United States—Congresses. 4. Social movements—United States—Congresses.
5. Political activists—United States—Congresses. 6. Historians—Political
activity—Congresses. 7. Learning and scholarship—Political aspects—Congresses.
8. Student movements—Congresses. 9. Social movements—Congresses.
10. Political activists—Congresses. I. Downs, James T., 1973– II. Manion,
Jennifer, 1974–
E175.45.T35 2004
378.1'981'0973—dc22
2004014171
ISBN 0-203-33958-4 Master e-book ISBN
Dedicated to our parents,
Concetta Sepielli Downs and James T. Downs
and
Dorothy Chiccine Manion and Edward Michael Manion

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword xi
ERIC FONER
Introduction 1
Bench Talk
JIM DOWNS and JENNIFER MANION
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1 Teaching Student Activism 11
EILEEN EAGAN
2 Debating Tlatelolco: Thirty Years of Public Debates 25
about the Mexican Student Movement of 1968
VANIA MARKARIAN
3 Between Berlin and Berkeley, Frankfurt and San Francisco: 35
The Student Movements of the 1960s
in Transatlantic Perspective
MARTIN KLIMKE
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4 Unionizing for a More Democratic and Responsive University 57
ANITA SETH
5 What Is a University? Anti-Union Campaigns in Academia 69
KIMBERLY PHILLIPS-FEIN
vvvvviiiiiiiiii
viii • Contents
6 Where Have All the Politics Gone? 85
A Graduate Student’s Reflections
JOHN MCMILLIAN
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7 The Glass Tower: Half Full or Half Empty? 93
NANCY A. HEWITT
8 Toxic Torts: Historians in the Courtroom 103
DAVID ROSNER
9 The Most Craven Abdication of Democratic Principles: 113
On the U.S. Attack on Iraq
GLENDA GILMORE
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10 Forging Activist Alliances: 125
Identity, Identification, and Position
DRUCILLA CORNELL and KITTY KRUPAT
11 Calling All Liberals: Connecting Feminist Theory, 145
Activism, and History
JENNIFER MANION
12 Producing for Use and Teaching the Whole Student: 161
Can Pedagogy Be a Form of Activism?
KATHLEEN M. BROWN and TRACEY M. WEIS
13 Teaching Across the Color Line: 177
A Warning About Identity Politics in the Classroom
JIM DOWNS
14 2.5 Cheers for Bridging the Gap Between Activism 187
and the Academy; or, Stay and Fight:
To Which Is Added an Account of Radical
Scholar-Activists in the Wake of the Iraq War
JESSE LEMISCH
Contributors 209
Index 215
Acknowledgments
JIM DOWNS
JENNIFER MANION
We would like to acknowledge the truly energetic and dynamic participa-
tion of all those who attended and made the conference a success. For making
the conference possible, we are grateful to the Columbia University faculty
and administration for their financial and administrative support, particu-
larly Alan Brinkley, Elizabeth Blackmar, the Graduate Student Advisory
Council, La Maison Francaise, and the Dean’s Office. Most of all, we would
like to thank the graduate students who designed Web pages, hung posters,
found A.V. equipment, reviewed proposals, poured coffee, and assisted with
the registration table, most especially Aparna Balachandran, Shannan Clark,
Jennifer Fronc, Laura Hornbake, Nancy Kwak, Ted McCormick, Lisa Ramos,
Jennifer Tammi, Jennifer Tappan, James Tejani, Janice Traflet, Toru Umezaki,
and Theresa Ventura.
Catherine Clinton first saw the value of pulling together essays from the
conference to be published in book form, and without her, this volume
would not exist. Before even seeing our dissertation proposals, Eric Foner
and Nancy Hewitt, our respective advisors, each offered important feed-
back about the book proposal and publishing process. They, along with
Barbara Balliet, David Rosner, Todd Anten, Jodi Bromberg, and George
Davilas, have provided us with extremely useful advice and encouragement.
We are also very grateful to Jaclyn Bergeron and Karen Wolny who pro-
vided editorial assistance and support.
As undergraduates, we learned that teaching and writing were powerful
vehicles for social change through the examples of Drew Gilpin Faust, Farah
J. Griffin, Lynn Hollen Lees, Kathy Brown, Nancy Bentley, Ellie DiLapi, Gloria
Gay, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, and Herman Beavers. Lynda Hart, to whom
the conference was dedicated, has profoundly shaped our intellectual, po-
litical, and even personal endeavors, in life and in death.
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