Scholar bloggers

by Henry Farrell on July 20, 2003

Something which I should have mentioned previously. Below our main blogroll is a list of academic bloggers, which has been transplanted over from my old blog (I owe the original idea for the list to “Jacob Levy”:http://jacobtlevy.blogspot.com/ ). This is a fairly non-exclusive list; i.e., if you think that you should be on it, you’re probably right. And not only that, if you email me, and you qualify, I’ll put you on it (you can email one of my fellow bloggers if you prefer, but it may take a bit longer to get you up). The qualifications are fairly straightforward. First, if you either have an academic position at a university type institution, or are a Ph.D. student or equivalent at same, you qualify. Second, if you have a Ph.D., but are pursuing another career due to the miserable state of the job market, or more interesting opportunities elsewhere, and keep a blog that sort-of relates to your field of specialization, you qualify unless you’re Jerry Pournelle. Third, if you don’t qualify under the formal criteria, but think that you provide a venue for specialized academic discussion, email us to say why you should be included, and we may put you in (note, however, that we will tend to be highly selective in this last category; so don’t feel insulted or upset if we decide against including you).

Finally, we do want to keep some minimal criteria for non-offensive content; we’re unlikely to link to you if you use your blog to propagate views that I and/or my fellow bloggers find downright revolting. Which isn’t to say at all that you need to agree with us; conservatives, right-libertarians etc, are all very welcome. But if you’re a racist, or anti-Semitic, or homophobic, and/or you think that all Jews or Arabs ought to be forcibly expelled, or similar, we would prefer that you continue to practice your right to free speech without a link from us.

Update: The Crooked Timber Academic blogroll is no longer being updated. Instead, you should go to “http://www.academicblogs.net”:http://www.academicblogs.net, which has subsumed the old CT blogroll.

{ 24 comments }

1

Dagorian 07.21.03 at 4:18 am

Query: why is “anti-Semitic” distinguished from “racist”? Isn’t it really a sub-category? And if so, then isn’t singling out prejudice against Jews as being different (read: particularly bad) from prejudice against other races … well, isn’t that … racist ?

Not to be anti-Semitic, but racism is racism, and it’s equally bad whether applied to Jews, blacks, whites, American Indians, Japanese, Chinese … whatever. It always irks me how many minority members (and I’m one, btw) get a free pass on being racists themselves. AND for ad hominem attacks – e.g. the “I’m Jewish, you’re not, hence if you disagree with me you’re being anti-Semitic” line which crops up ever so often.

2

Henry 07.21.03 at 5:01 am

Nope. Frankly, that seems rather a bizarre overinterpretation/misinterpretation of the post. Sure, anti-Semitism is a subcategory of racism – I don’t see how mentioning anti-Semitism more specifically implies that it isn’t.

3

Danny Yee 07.21.03 at 6:55 am

DI knew there’d be some reason I’d want a PhD one day! (Abandoned PhD 1994, theis topic “Simulation and Analysis of Non-Optimal Hierarchical Link-State Routing Algorithms”.)

4

Nick 07.21.03 at 7:05 am

If “anti-Semitism” meant “hatred of Semites” then it would indeed be a form of racism, but these days it means “hatred of Jews”. Anti-Semitism means that one hates not only the Baal Shem Tov, but Sammy Davis Jr. as well. So the statement “anti-Semitism is a subcategory of racism” does not make much sense to me.

5

dagorian 07.21.03 at 9:38 am

Henry: Apologies if I was unclear – yes, I understand that it wasn’t the intent of the post (and I appreciate your policy behind the post, for raising the signal-to-noise ratio here to a higher level, mucho thanks for the interesting reading). I do admit that it was nitpicking. However, one’s nits (so to speak) do illustrate one’s way of thinking, and this was one issue which jumped out at me. As to your point, if it’s a subcategory, wouldn’t it be redundant to state it again? e.g. you wouldn’t say “I love fruits, apples, books …” unless (a) apples aren’t fruits; or (b) you particularly like apples. Or do you? If that’s your normal speech/writing pattern, then I apologise for the mistake.

Nick: while you’re correct that anti-Semitism these days means “hatred of Jews”, aren’t Jews just another class of people distinguishable by genetic physical characteristics? (I use this definition to avoid the entire academic debate about whether there is such a thing as “race” anyway … we all know the layman meaning of the word, and by the layman meaning, isn’t being “Jewish” a race as much as being black?) By my reading (and also Henry’s, who being the original poster has the final say on what he meant), anti-Semitism really should be treated as a sub-class of racism.

6

Jimmy Doyle 07.21.03 at 1:01 pm

Henry: I have responded to your last post in the ‘Historical Revisionism’ thread. (Apologies for going off-topic.)

7

pathos 07.21.03 at 2:09 pm

Dagorian,

What a bizarre argument. Jews include those Ashkenazi Jews who are “white”, Sephardic Jews who are “Middle Eastern” (whatever race that is), and Ethiopian Jews who are “black”. It also includes converts of every race, and small groups of Jews who live in nearly every country on earth and look like the people around them.

Racism has never been “hatred of genetic traits”. Or contrarily, if anyone ever isolates a “gay gene”, would that make homophobia a subset of racism too?

In fact, since anti-Semitism is primarily considered as meaning hatred due to religion (as opposed to hatred due to race), one has to wonder if your desire to expunge “anti-Semitism” from the list isn’t itself a form of anti-Semitism.

8

Nabakov 07.21.03 at 4:41 pm

Trust you don’t have any problem with people allergic to coriander.

9

JRoth 07.21.03 at 7:56 pm

No, no, he’s just an anti-“anti-Semite.” I feel the same way about people who use the term “irregardless.” Bunch of bastards, AFAIC.

10

Kevin Brancato 07.21.03 at 9:26 pm

I believe that in Russia, “Jewish” is an ethnic tag (documented in passports as ethnicity), not a religious identity.

More importantly, I wanted to tell potential scholar-bloggers that your list provides my blog with several hits per day–even on weekends.

However, I should note that I can’t estimate the average quality of scholar-bloggers who will be attracted by such a selfish incentive.

11

Jacob 07.22.03 at 12:28 am

Kevin’s right: in the mere hours that I’ve been included on the blogroll, I’ve gotten about a dozen hits referred from here. Also, it’s encouraged me to focus myself posts on history, which was the point of my blog in the first place, not just on random musings based on today’s Times.

12

George W. 07.22.03 at 3:07 am

Thanks for the link. Please update from http://www.chlt.org/~gwilliams to my new address at http://ghw.wordherders.net. While you’re at it, you could update Chuck Tryon’s link, too, to http://chutry.wordherders.net.

13

Kevin Brancato 07.22.03 at 11:12 am

My link also needs updating. Thank you.

Truck and Barter is now at:

http://www.truckandbarter.com/

14

nick sweeney 07.22.03 at 9:34 pm

Gosh, now I’m going to have to make use of my bloody DPhil and start a literature-centric blog. Probably good for getting my academic chops back in order.

15

Dorothea Salo 07.23.03 at 1:42 am

I’ve never been quite sure what I was doing on the list, to be perfectly honest. I meet none of the criteria whatever.

16

Henry 07.23.03 at 1:59 am

Could be a case of mistaken identity … I’d thought that you were a Ph.D. student of some class, variety, or description. Happy to remove you if you like.

17

Loren 07.23.03 at 6:46 pm

been lurking for a short while and enjoy the site: civil and informed exchanges with a good mix of topics and views. I think I meet the criteria well enough, so I’ll offer up my pseudoblog for consideration, under your “political theory” bloglist: http://web.mit.edu/lking/www/play.html

18

Trish 07.31.03 at 8:34 pm

Hi,

I was wondering if my site would qualify for the academic bloggers list. I’m a PhD student in Physical Oceanography (Arctic Sea Ice) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. In terms of categories, I’d likely fall under Earth Science (which I notice you don’t have up there), but failing that, applied physics wouldn’t be too bad a fit… Along with general life, I post a lot about my thesis and climate change issues.

Thanks!
Trish Amundrud

19

Al Craig 09.29.03 at 5:39 pm

May I suggest IPKat (Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon) for inclusion under IP Law (UK and European):
http://www.ipkitten.blogspot.com/

Their main website is at:
http://www.ipkat.com/

20

ras 09.29.03 at 10:00 pm

Yours is a really informative web log. The links to other academic blogs is especially helpful. Please consider “Blogging a Professor” for inclusion on your list of academic blogs. My discipline is Communication Studies (your “IT/Media/Communication” category), but the blog is more general, really from a college administrator’s perspective (I am also an associate dean). “Blogging a Professor” is relatively new, so it has a way to go to be mature among blogs. Perhaps others can comment on it should they choose to visit it.

Thank you.
robastewart

21

Jason 10.22.03 at 6:27 am

Hi, Trish from spiritofplace.com, who is listed under your Physics/Applied Science category suggested that I apply for membership. I am an undergraduate student studying Religion and Culture with intentions to pursue interdisciplinary grad work in same field, along with internet studies. I post about my research interests, usually about blogs and contemporary religion.

22

arbitrary aardvark 02.16.04 at 1:00 pm

abuaardvark has a new link.
speaking of aardvarks, you are welcome to blogroll me (or not) if you wish. jd,llm,no phd, no institutional affiliation. i blog about election law at ballots.blogspot.com and blogopshere memes (from ampersand to volokh)at vark.blogspot.com.
– arbitrary aardvark

23

Winston Smith 02.27.04 at 5:08 pm

But wouldn’t an anti-anti-semite by extention be non anti-semetic. To pyschologizes and say that an anti-anti-semite is acutally anti-semitic is reductio ad absurdum. It’s clever double think to be against anti-semitism and at the same time be called anti-semitic. I guess it’s easier not to be caught in the trap.

24

Mac Thomason 02.27.04 at 11:38 pm

What about college librarians?

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