Comments on: Juan Cole and Yale

By: Kesher Talk

Kesher Talk — Mon, 01 May 2006 12:14:39 +0000

A Juan Cole potpourri...

(In response to Professor Cole being in the news again, we retrieved the Best of Juan Cole from the Kesher Talk archives, which was a good first pass at assessing how Cole has acquitted himself in the fights he has......

By: TK

TK — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 23:38:09 +0000

Being criticized by Chomsky does not make Cole "to the Left" of Chomsky. That's just stupid. I read Chomsky's critique of Mearsheimer and Walt's essay, which I assume is where the "questioning" of Cole's judgment comes in, and it's nothing of the kind. Chomsky, consistent with his political stance, does not see outside groups like AIPAC "influencing" US elites, though he does see them acting in concert when their interests align, which is the case most of the time in US-Israeli relations. Chomsky points out instances where US elite interests and Israeli policies diverged, and the impotence of "the Lobby" when they did so, to rebut the idea that the tail wags the dog in US-Israeli relations, rather than the other way around. This is a purely factual disagreement on an issue which, if it didn't involve Israel, would be wholly uncontroversial. If anything, a critique that posits that well-funded lobby groups influence government policy in a democracy is much more mainstream and centrist than the Chomskyan argument that the US political system exists largely to benefit the interests of a ruling class. But this kind of nonsense is what one comes to expect from people of limited reading skills.

By: The Jawa Report

The Jawa Report — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:43:36 +0000

First to Fall to Sharia? The Academy...

Yes, I actually teach at a university. No, I will never reveal my identity. Case in point, Detroit Free Press:An Islamic student group at Michigan State University demanded Monday that university officials publicly reprimand a professor whose Feb. 28 e...

By: Yehudit

Yehudit — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 01:32:47 +0000

Cole's history in the blogosphere making unfounded accusations and conspiracy-mongering in general. Includes links to Martin Kramer and Tony Badran, who critique Coleâ��s Middle East expertise. Many academics use blogs as platforms to push a point of view, nothing wrong with that, but in Cole's case the "paper" trail shows serious incompetence. There are numerous examples of Cole saying things that aren't true, even in his own area of expertise. And his performance in the blog world is that of a kook.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:17:33 +0000

Dave: That's a fair point, although clearly not the main beef people have with Cole. Unfortunately, expertise creep is an occupational hazard of public intellectuals.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 16:41:51 +0000

I think that there are some distinctions to made here, James. Dr. Cole is a legitimate scholar of Middle Eastern (particularly 19th century Iranian and Iraqi IIRC) religious movements. Over the last couple of years he's been bootstrapping that into more general Middle Eastern expertise.

Does he have legitimate scholarly credentials more generally? I have no idea whatever. It would seem to me that his credentials in contemporary Middle Eastern politics would be an issue for the faculty hiring committee to consider and, if they're actually there, he'd be a real addition to Yale's faculty.

The bootstrapping concerns me. From reading his blog and reading criticisms of his blog from other Middle Eastern scholars who don't share his political views I believe the concern about the bootstrapping is legit.

By: Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:40:55 +0000

What has Cole said or written that is equivalent to Holocaust denial?

By: PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts

PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:40:09 +0000

On Juan Cole and Yale...

I noticed via James Joyner that the WSJ editorial board isn’t too happy (see Cole Fire) with the fact that Yale may be hiring Juan Cole (known to the Blogosphere as the author of Informed Comment) for a faculty position.
The basics were in the...

By: whatever

whatever — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:07:12 +0000

Would you be in favor of hiring professors who said the Holocaust didn't exist? Is there no line someone with "professor" in their title can't cross and pay the consequences for?

By: Spam filterning 101

Spam filterning 101 — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

unwanted emails, are the things we store and decorate here, top 10 things to do Most of the emails we all receive are either Newsletters or the junk the best of these garbage emails. Hope you enjoy reading this junk collection. If you want to -Juan Cole and Yale Outside Beltway - There has been a minor kerfuffle over the last few days over Yale s hiring of Michigan historian Juan Cole , best known these days as the author of the controversial Informed Commen t blog, for a prestigious contemporary Middle East

By: Corrente | Boldly shrill ...

Corrente | Boldly shrill ... — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

s (Wall Street) Opinion Journal accuses Prof. Cole of, among other things: blogging, being an expert in 19th Century Middle Eastern History, and saying that a powerful pro-Israel lobby exists in the US. Poliblog andOutside The Beltway have come to Prof. Cole’s defense, but we need more, I think. Never underestimate the Wingnuttophere’s capacity for smearing someone who reveals facts they don’t like. UPDATE: Juan Cole strikes back!

By: Riehl World View

Riehl World View — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

at Yale those on the Left might see, rightly or wrongly, as equally extreme. I think it's important to keep the argument over the role of scholarship in academe about inclusion of other views, not exclusion of ones for which we don't care.James Joyner at OTB has it right. If we are going to argue that distinguished academics whose political views we do not like are unfit for hire, conservatives will have little ground to stand on when they find their own attacked. That’s a very dangerous precedent.