From Susan Curtis at Purdue: Last summer an AP news story revealed that Mitch Daniels, as governor of the State of Indiana, sought to suppress the work of Howard Zinn because he believed that this venerable scholar activist advanced “anti-American” ideas. When asked about his position, Daniels, now president of Purdue University, insisted that he still thinks that the effort to keep Howard Zinn’s work out of Indiana schools was a good idea. Ninety of my colleagues and I disagreed. In a letter I co-authored we explained to Daniels that his continued defense of that position challenged the ideal of academic freedom, which is vital to the free exchange of ideas. The conflict has been simmering ever since. One of the signatories to the letter, Paul Benhamou, approached me with the idea of establishing a research award in honor of Howard Zinn for graduate students in American Studies. I thought it was an excellent idea and a way of putting valuable resources at the disposal of young scholars committed to continuing the work to which Howard Zinn devoted his entire career. As you know, the university gets tons of support for research that makes war more effective and efficient and that buttresses capitalist exploitation, but the entities that support such research--corporations, wealthy donors, and the federal government--are not as likely to support research on dissenters and the oppressed. That is the main reason Paul and I are pushing forward with this award--if people who believe in the importance of this kind of work dont support it, who will? We want to reflect the ideal of solidarity embraced by the subjects of Howard Zinn’s research. Instead of a single contributor, we envision a mass of people contributing what they can so that, collectively, we can endow this research fund and perpetuate Zinn’s scholarly commitments into the future. In order to endow a research fund, we must raise a minimum of $25,000. So far we have commitments for $4,500. Would you like to help us reach our goal? We have not yet established an account with the university, but we are taking pledges. If you would like to be part of this effort, please contact us at the following email address: zinnscholarship@gmail. Susan Curtis Professor of History and American Studies, Purdue University
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 22:02:24 +0000
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