ROTC Taints University Campuses - Colman McCarthy, Washington Pos

[xavier fremboe]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122903033.html

From the WaPo.

Selected tidbits...

They can align themselves with colleges such as Hobart, Earlham, Goshen, Guilford, Hampshire, George Fox and a long list of others that teach alternatives to violence. Serve your country after college, these schools say, but consider the Peace Corps as well as the Marine Corps.

Will the Ivies have the courage for such stands? I'm doubtful. Only one of the eight Ivy League schools - Cornell - offers a degree in peace studies. Their pride in running programs in women's studies, black studies, and gay and lesbian studies is well-founded, but schools have small claims to greatness so long as the study of peace is not equal to the other departments when it comes to size and funding.

To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America's or the Taliban's: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I've had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.

ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the intellectual purity of a school, if by purity we mean trying to rise above the foul idea that nations can kill and destroy their way to peace. If a school such as Harvard does sell out to the military, let it at least be honest and add a sign at its Cambridge front portal: Harvard, a Pentagon Annex.

Colman McCarthy, a former Post columnist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington and teaches courses on nonviolence at four area universities and two high schools.

I would like to see a list of the area universities and high schools this gentleman professes at.

Also, why are there so few protest articles about the 'soft academics' of the [insert your perceived differentiating grievance here] studies the author expresses so much pride in?

[SADShooter]

Washington Pos, indeed....

[MicroBalrog]

admire those who join armies, whether America's or the Taliban's:

That's all we need to know about this idiot.

[Monkeyleg]

It's sickening that good men and women die to protect idiots like these.

[Perd Hapley]

If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.

 

[HankB]

Only one of the eight Ivy League schools - Cornell - offers a degree in peace studies.

So we can write-off Cornell as a serious institution.

Their pride in running programs in women's studies, black studies, and gay and lesbian studies is well-founded,

No it's not - the only pride a school ought to take in in the absence of such absurd areas of "study."

(The truth of the first part of my .sig is confirmed yet again.)

[MicroBalrog]

No it's not - the only pride a school ought to take in in the absence of such absurd areas of "study."

(The truth of the first part of my .sig is confirmed yet again.)

What is absurd about women's studies? Do you happen to have attended such?

[KD5NRH]

What is absurd about women's studies? Do you happen to have attended such?

Why should it differ from men's studies?  Are the broads too stupid to handle regular classes?

[xavier fremboe]

What is absurd about women's studies? Do you happen to have attended such?

Took a psychology of women course and it was very eye-opening.  Particularly in the fight or flight response discussions.  Interesting course.

[Perd Hapley]

Why should it differ from men's studies?  Are the broads too stupid to handle regular classes?

 

[RevDisk]

If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.

The quality of the folks says much about your movement.  If the best and brightest are not joining your side, well...

[drewtam]

So we can write-off Cornell as a serious institution.
No it's not - the only pride a school ought to take in in the absence of such absurd areas of "study."

(The truth of the first part of my .sig is confirmed yet again.)

Cornell was one of the few that kept the ROTC programs regardless of the phony DADT protests by other schools.

[Perd Hapley]

The quality of the folks says much about your movement.  If the best and brightest are not joining your side, well...

The sad part is that so many good people DO find their way into such brutal, backward left wing orgs. Like the Democratic Party...

[RevDisk]

The sad part is that so many good people DO find their way into such brutal, backward left wing orgs. Like the Democratic Party...

Like myself?

[Perd Hapley]

 

[Strings]

He specifically stated "good people", bro. So you don't count there...

[HankB]

What is absurd about women's studies? Do you happen to have attended such?

Well, for one thing, attendees often have a problem with spelling - they often refer to themselves in print as womyn.

[roo_ster]

What is absurd about women's studies? Do you happen to have attended such?

I think the first problem is the Marxist sewage in the curriculum, tailored to the grievance group particulars.

The same problem as most <grievance group>-studies curricula.  You take someone with a first class mind and shove *expletive deleted*it into it for four, six, eight years and you have an erudite fool good for nothing.  Well, maybe if you ground them up for tankage they might make good fertilizer.

[roo_ster]

Yale University lumps their gay & gal grievance political indoctrination into "Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies."

Just what sort of speakers and events come to Yale explicitly under this banner?  Perhaps hte Fall 2010 schedule could be of use:

http://www.yale.edu/wgss/events/calendar.html

Tuesday, September 7, Opening Reception for WGSS and LGBTS, 5:00 pm, WLH 309

Tuesday, September 14, WGSS Speakers Series. 5:00 pm, WLH 309. Jennifer Terry, UC Irvine. "Nationalist Heteropatriarchy and Symptomatic Fixations on Homosexuality in the Military."

Monday, September 20, WGSS Colloquium, 5:30 pm, WLH 309. Natalie Prizel (English) “Feverish Imaginations: Mapping Fever and Its Metaphors in New Orleans, 1853-2005.”

Rebecca Henriksen (MAR, ISM ‘10), "Purpose-Driven in Rwanda: A Feminist Postcolonial Critique of the Partnership between Rick Warren and Paul Kagame." Click here for the complete Fall schedule.

Thursday, September 23, YRIHS, 5:00 pm HGS 211. Lella Rupp, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara,."Transnational Homophile Organizing: The International Committee for Sexual Equality." Sponsored by the Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities.

Saturday, September 25, Global Queer Film Series, Whitney Humanities Center

6pm, El último verano de la Boyita/The Last Summer of La Boyita (Julia Solomonoff, 2009, Argentina) 8:30 pm, Contracorriente/Undertow (Javier Fuentes-Leon, 2009, Peru)

co-sponsored by the New England Festival of Ibero American Cinema and LGBTS Global Queer Film Series. More information to be announced.

Wednesday, September 29, WGSS Speakers Series, 4:30 pm, Department of Anthropology, 10 Sachem St, Room 105. Anjali Arondeker, UCSC "Archival Attachments: On Sexuality and Historiography in South Asia." Co-sponsored with the South Asian Studies Council.

Tuesday, October 5, WGSS Speakers Series, 5:00 pm, WLH 309, Robyn Wiegman, Duke University, “All About Eve”

Monday, October 11, YRIHS, 5:00 pm, HGS 211 Ara Wilson, Duke University" Sexual Latitudes: The Erotic Life of Globalization." Sponsored by the Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities.

Monday, October 18, WGSS Colloquium, 5:30 pm, WLH 309. Gerardo Con Diaz (HSHM), “Voices of Light: Testimony, Activism, and the Display of Gay Identities in the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1974-1978."  Kelly Hughes (Anthropology), “Spatial cognition, anxiety and sex in rhesus macaques: a model for understanding human variation” Click here for the complete Fall schedule.

Wednesday, November 3, WGSS Speakers Series, 4:30 pm, Luce Hall, Room 203

"Reading Down" the Sodomy Law in India: Perspectives from Research and Activism?
 (Svati Shat, Jyoti Puri, Vivek Divan). Co-sponsored with the South Asian Studies Council and LGBT Studies.

Thursday, November 11, YRIHS, 5:00 PM HGS 21, Authoritarianism, Democracy, and Sexual Politics in Argentina since 1960.Valeria Manzano, University of Chicago,

"Sex, Gender, and the Making of the ‘Enemy Within’ in Argentina, 1960-1976" and Pablo Ben, University of Northern Iowa, "The Homosexual Liberation Front: Argentina’s First Movement of Sexual Dissidence, 1968-1976" Sponsored by the Yale Research Initiative on the History of Sexualities.

Monday, November 15, WGSS Colloquium, 5:30 pm, WLH 309, Catherine Telford-Keogh, “Witchcraft, Post-hegelian recognition and the Ethics of Flourishing.” Dana Asbury (Sociology), “Local Community Work and Volunteerism.” Click here for the complete Fall schedule.

Wednesday, December 1, Brudner Lecture, Yale Law School 5:00 pm, Rm. 127. Mary Bonauto, "Perry, Gill and the Right Wing Challenges to Defeat Us."Sponsored by LGBT Studies. Click here for more informtion.

Monday, December 6, WGSS Senior Essay Presentations, 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, WLH 309

[Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas]

Rebecca Henriksen (MAR, ISM ‘10), "Purpose-Driven in Rwanda: A Feminist Postcolonial Critique of the Partnership between Rick Warren and Paul Kagame." Click here for the complete Fall schedule.

*Head explodes*

That's all we need to know about this idiot.

Got that right.

[roo_ster]

How about those courses offered under the WGSSFABGLITTER heading:

   Print List    building codes    35 courses found for Spring 2011.
   WGSS    032    01    (21986)    History of Sexuality    Maria Trumpler    TTh 1.00-2.15
   WGSS    035    01    (22641)    CANCELLED    Staff    
   WGSS    115    01    (22633)    Gender in a Transnationl World    Inderpal Grewal    MW 1.30-2.20
1 HTBA
   WGSS    167    01    (22300)    AfricanAmericanWomen'sHistory    Crystal Feimster    TTh 11.35-12.25
1 HTBA
   WGSS    201    01    (21786)    Women in America: 20th Century    Joanne Meyerowitz    TTh 10.30-11.20
1 HTBA
   WGSS    215    01    (21744)    ModernLit&EasternMediterranean    Langdon Hammer
George Syrimis    W 3.30-5.20
   WGSS    221    01    (21968)    Sex and Romance in Adolescence    Hannah Brueckner    F 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    234    01    (22690)    CANCELLED    Staff    
   WGSS    292    01    (22333)    AfricanAmer Lit III: 1970-Pres    Elizabeth Alexander    MW 1.00-2.15
1 HTBA
   WGSS    295    01    (22700)    Globalizing Gender    Geetanjali Chanda    TTh 11.35-12.50
   WGSS    308    01    (22691)    Queer Ethnographies    Karen Nakamura    T 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    309    01    (22679)    Toni Morrison    Naomi Pabst    W 3.30-5.20
   WGSS    323    01    (22727)    HIV and AIDS in Africa    Graeme Reid    M 7.00-8.50p
   WGSS    328    01    (22698)    Pop Culture&Postcolonial India    Geetanjali Chanda    W 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    339    01    (22170)    Feminist Fictions    Margaret Homans    WF 11.35-12.50
   WGSS    360    01    (22362)    Queer Theory    Michael Warner    T 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    363    01    (22731)    Beauty, Fashion & Self-Styling    Graeme Reid    M 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    389    01    (22319)    SexualityInAfAmLit&PopCulture    GerShun Avilez    Th 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    398    01    (22695)    Junior Seminar:Theory & Method    Melanie Boyd    T 7.00-8.50p
   WGSS    405    01    (21902)    Women&LitInTraditionalChina TR    Kang-i Sun Chang    TTh 1.00-2.15
   WGSS    408    01    (22214)    Queer Mythologies    Sam See    TTh 1.00-2.15
   WGSS    410    01    (22650)    InterdiscApproachesAfrAmerStud    Staff    Th 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    451    01    (22969)    Photography and Memory    Laura Wexler    Th 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    453    01    (21497)    Women&Medicne:ColonialEra-Pres    Naomi Rogers    T 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    471    01    (22762)    Independent Directed Study    Melanie Boyd    
   WGSS    490    01    (21987)    The Senior Colloquium    Maria Trumpler    T 3.30-5.20
   WGSS    491    01    (22696)    The Senior Essay    Melanie Boyd    3 HTBA
   WGSS    493    01    (22464)    IntroModrnMiddleEasternStudies    Hala Nassar    Th 3.30-5.20
   WGSS    631    01    (21424)    FeministTheory:State&Non-State    Inderpal Grewal    T 9.25-11.15
   WGSS    662    01    (21425)    HIV and AIDS in Africa    Graeme Reid    M 7.00-8.50p
   WGSS    689    01    (20606)    Black Feminist Theory & Praxis    Jafari Allen    T 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    701    01    (20666)    Queer Ethnographies    Karen Nakamura    T 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    730    01    (21029)    HealthPolitics,BodyPolitics    Naomi Rogers    W 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    751    01    (22971)    Photography and Memory    Laura Wexler    Th 1.30-3.20
   WGSS    770    01    (20814)    Women&Lit in Traditional China    Kang-i Sun Chang    TTh 1.00-2.15

Let us examine a course description of two?

Queer Mythologies
Sam See
TTh 1.00-2.15
   
Spring 2011
No regular final examination
Skills WR
Areas Hu
Permission of instructor required

The use of mythology and mythopoeia (myth-making) by twentieth-century British and American writers to develop queer literary and historical communities. Texts include classical, biblical, Yorùbá, and Aztec myths as background for readings in modernist and postmodernist literature. Authors include Sigmund Freud, Hilda Doolittle, Jeanette Winterson, Tony Kushner, and Tarell Alvin McCraney.

Oh, that's ^^^ a meaty course.  Chock full of content.  And the rigorous non-testing they do to ensure you really know your queer mythology... 

Queer Theory
Michael Warner
T 9.25-11.15
   
Spring 2011
No regular final examination
Areas Hu
Permission of instructor required

Traditions of queer critical reflection on sexuality and the social order, from the theoretical statements of the gay liberation movement to the present. Readings in Michel Foucault, Eve Sedgwick, Judith Butler, and Leo Bersani. Present-day trans theory; debates over gay marriage, globalization, rights, and secularism.

Whooee!  Actual reflection on the theoretical statements of the gay liberation movement!  Who can deny the high-dollar content found here?  Again, no exams. 

Heck, y'all have earned a bonus course description. 

Black Feminist Theory and Praxis
Jafari Allen
T 1.30-3.20
   
Spring 2011
 
In this course we analyze black feminisms as both political space and scholarly choice. This framework enables us to examine the continuities between black feminist and womanist theorizing in diverse locations, and to explore how different embodied experiences—including genders, histories, geographies, and genealogies—condition divergent perspectives. Themes explored include slavery, colonialism, diaspora consciousness, multiple genders and sexualities, class difference and inequities of power within black communities; representation in popular culture; state violence; poetics and resistance. We employ a transdisciplinary perspective—including anthropology, history, sociology, literature, and film—and challenge notions of "theory" as the province of the West (and North) and the middle class.

No telling if Prof Jafari actually gives exams on the content of this course.  Might want to let this one pass by, as we wouldn't want to risk being tested. 

[KD5NRH]

The same problem as most <grievance group>-studies curricula.

Maybe that's why general studies majors are often looked down upon; generals aren't very effectively discriminated against.

[MicroBalrog]

So let's see.

In short, Gender/Queer/etc. studies apply the tools of history, literature, and some other humanitarian disciplines to the topic of gender, or queers, or whatever, as it was discussed in the cultures of the past.

I am sure it is polluted by leftism - like all academia - but to think that we shouldn't study the topic is downright preposterous.

[seeker_two]

Any way we could convince al-Queda that these "intellectuals" are the backbone of the American system and that, by "jihad-ing" them, the "Great Satan" would fall to its knees?.....


Just speculating here..... 

[MillCreek]

Hmm, I did not have nearly as exciting course descriptions in chemistry, law and business.