Recall last October’s allegation that the chair of Barnard’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Rachel McDermott, “steered” a Jewish Barnard student away from taking one of Columbia Professor Joseph Massad‘s classes lest his reportedly pro-Palestinian slant make her “uncomfortable.” The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) began an investigation in […]

The Barnard Orthodox Jewish student who was allegedly “steered” from taking Joseph Massad’s class because of the professor’s anti-Israel views, has given her first interview. The article for Tablet, written by David Fine, CC’13, reveals that the student wanted to take the class with Massad, despite his reputation, but was still “steered” away by her […]

“It’s possible Morningside Heights has found its annual autumn incident,” writes Marc Tracy in Tablet, an online magazine of Jewish news. According to his article published earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) will investigate a complaint that the chair of  Barnard’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures “steered” a Jewish Barnard student […]

And we’re gonna let you finish, but… New York City has some of the highest unemployment of all time. (NYT) We’ve also got some of the lowest homicide rates of all time. (AP) Columbia’s Joseph Massad has one of the most protested tenures of all time. (Manhattan Institute) The new swine flu nasal spray is […]

The “will-she-or-won’t-she?” over Emma Watson’s possible matriculation at Columbia continues, much to our tipsters’ agony. Last week, co-star Daniel Radcliffe appeared to let the secret out when he told the Guardian “she’s going to Brown!” However, other gossip blogs, despite access to Google News, continue to assert that she will be coming to New York […]

In April, we reported that rumors both on campus and in print were suggesting that Professor Joseph Massad would soon be granted tenure. Now, everyone’s favorite tabloid/monitor-of-all-Columbia-controversies, the New York Post, reports (via HuffPo) that Massad has been granted tenure.  In an article neutrally-entitled “Columbia Tenures An Israel Basher,” columnist Jacob Gershman writes that Columbia […]

Last May, rumors circulated that controversial Professor Joseph Massad was up for a second round of tenure review, after having been denied tenure six months earlier. Now, word is spreading both on campus and in media outlets that Massad has been granted tenure. Massad, who is in Egypt this semester, did not respond to an […]

As you may have heard, there’s a bit of a to-do in Gaza right now. Being an utterly uncontroversial source for Israel-Palestine conflict analysis, Columbia hasn’t been able to keep its name out of the media, with several professors offering their thoughts on the latest clash. Some samples: Just before the start of the conflict, […]

As one commenter pointed out, this week’s New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer section features a short piece that references an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that speculates that Joseph Massad might be up for a second round of tenure review. Both the New York piece and the Chronicle piece have no on-the-record information […]

Despite previous statements to the contrary, the Academic Affairs Committee has invited the entirety of Columbia College to tonight’s Academic Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will honor Lionel Trilling and Mark van Doren Award winners, Joseph Massad and Andrew Nathan, respectively.  The reception starts tonight in Low at 6 PM with the ceremony to follow. We’re […]

The winners of the 2008 Lionel Trilling and Mark van Doren Awards have been announced. As Bwog reported earlier, Associate Professor Joseph Massad has been awarded the former, while Andrew Nathan, Political Science Department Chairman, has been awarded the latter for his “humanity, devotion to truth, and and inspiring leadership,” according to the press release.  […]

Today Associate Professor Joseph Massad‘s Desiring Arabs has been awarded the 2008 Lionel Trilling Award, according an email sent to the MEALAC listserv. The award is given each year to honor the book authored by a Columbia faculty member “that is deemed to best exhibit the standards of intellect and scholarship found in Lionel Trilling’s […]

Of 70 Columbia professors, expressed to the New York Sun! Some of them rather prominent! A faculty action committee statement of concern  accuses PrezBo of failing “to make a vigorous defense of the core principles on which the university is founded, especially academic freedom.” Particularly rankling to signatories–which include such luminaries as Akeel Bilgrami, Bruce […]

According to The Spine, a blog written by New Republic editor Marty Perez, Joseph Massad has been denied tenure. There’s no other source on the story so far and no official word on the reasons behind the decision, but Gil Ronen of Israel National news claimed yesterday that the decision to make Nadia El-Haj a […]

On Friday, lecture hopper extraordinaire Josh Mathew took the walk down to St. Mary‘s Episcopal church in Harlem to hear two scholars duke it out on the question of Israel and Palestine. After making my way past the numerous activists handing out fliers condemning the war in Iraq and the U.S.’s conceivable Iranian escapades, I […]