ENGAGE - ARCHIVE

At the beginning of 2006, the AAUP, (the American Association of University Professors) had planned a meeting in Bellagio, Italy, to discuss academic boycotts. AAUP has a clear position against proposals for an academic boycott of Israel, yet they were forging ahead with this badly thought-out meeting with the boycotters nevertheless. Follow the story through these links:

Jon Pike advises the AAUP not to invite the boycott campaign into the union. Here. (January 06)

Who does the AAUP want to chat with? Some quotes from the people that AAUP wanted to sit and discuss boycotts with. Here. (January 06)

Report on the Bellagio affair from 'Inside Higher Ed'. Here. (February 06)

Letter from Jon Pike to Roger Bowen of the AAUP. Here. (February 06)

Engage calls for the Bellagio conference to be postponed. Here. (February 06)

Bellagio conference is finally postponed - then comes the conspiracy-theory backlash. Here. (February 06)

Two statements about the Bellagio affair. Here. (David Hirsh, February 2006)

The Inside Higher Ed report after the collapse of the conference. The comments from Joan Scott and others attached to this piece are well worth reading. Here.

AAUP went ahead with its special issue of "Academe" in which it had wanted to publish the papers from the cancelled conference.

The pro-boycott papers are here.

The anti-boycott papers are here. Well, in fact, there weren't any, because the anti-boycott people didn't want to be associated with this "discussion".

Here is Joan Scott's desperate attempt to explain what happened.

And here are "letters to the editor" from Michael Yudkin and Gerald Steinberg - with a minimal and rushed defence of Scott from Roger Bowen.

Article in "Inside Higher Ed" on the publication of the AAUP's journal "Academe" which contains pieces written by a number of anti-Zionist supporters of the boycott of Israel. See also the comment from Jon Pike underneath. Here. (September 06)

Jon Pike, Ernst Benjamin (co-editor of Academe) and David Hirsh debate the Bellagio affair. Here.

Jon Pike on Joan Scott's use of political smear, with a response from Ernst Benjamin. Here.

Stanley Dubinsky on the cancellation of the conference and the Academe special edition. Here.

Michael Yudkin's account of the Bellagio affair is here.