Ithaca College

After the American Studies Association (ASA) declared its support in December for an international boycott of Israeli academic institutions, President Tom Rochon and other academic executives across the country hastened to condemn the ASA's action and the boycott.

Cornell Professor and ASA member Eric Cheyfitz will present the case for the resolution, as well as responses to it, at a public talk on Tuesday, February 25, at 7:00 p.m. in Klingenstein Lounge, Campus Center.

The ASA has become the center of a firestorm. A bill in front of the New York State legislature that would strip funding from university groups involved in the boycott. Similar measures are being considered in other state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress.

Eric Cheyfitz is the Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters at Cornell University, where he teaches American literatures, American Indian literatures, and federal Indian law. He is former director of Cornell’s American Indian Program. In addition to three books and numerous published articles, Cheyfitz regularly contributes to newspapers, radio, documentary film, and legal proceedings involving issues of both Native rights and academic freedom. He coedited a special issue of the journal South Atlantic Quarterly titled Sovereignty, Indigeneity, and the Law, which won the Council of Editors of Learned Journals award for the best special issue of a journal for 2011. Cheyfitz recently discussed the ASA boycott on Democracy Now! and in the Journal of Higher Education.

The library is offering a study guide for Cheyfitz's talk. The event is cosponsored by the Departments of English and Politics; Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity; and Park Center for Independent Media.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Brandy Hawley, 607-274-3590; bhawley@ithaca.edu. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.