Israel to deny Palestinian-Israelis Preparation for University, in Exact Parallel to Apartheid South Africa

JUAN COLE Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – White Power nationalism in South Africa during the Apartheid period from the 1940s until the early 1990s demanded that the 20% of the population that was white control the lives of the 68% of the population that was Black. (Actually, during this era the whites declined to only… Read More Israel to deny Palestinian-Israelis Preparation for University, in Exact Parallel to Apartheid South Africa

Jadavpur University ragging row: A failure to safeguard higher education institutions

Despite official campaigns against the practice, ragging has never been an issue in campus politics. Far less does it figure in the larger political arena, where ideological debates are similarly oblivious to gender discrimination, hate crimes, all generated by the same psychopathology of violence linked to the exercise of power Supriya Chaudhuri On the night… Read More Jadavpur University ragging row: A failure to safeguard higher education institutions

Afghan women are being ‘erased from everything’

Tuesday marks the two-year anniversary of Kabul falling to the Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan amid the United States’ chaotic, controversial withdrawal from the country after nearly 20 years of fighting…. But celebrating is the last thing many Afghan women want to do… as life under Taliban rule becomes increasingly repressive and brutal. When Zahra thinks back to her life before the… Read More Afghan women are being ‘erased from everything’

After Pune teacher’s arrest: Fear and surveillance in the classroom

If, as a teacher, you become overly cautious before you utter a word, if you worry that a student is recording your lecture, or the administration is continually monitoring your every move, how can you teach Marx, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Tagore, Iqbal, Manto and Premchand freely, spontaneously and creatively?  Avijit Pathak The primary reason I could… Read More After Pune teacher’s arrest: Fear and surveillance in the classroom

Appeal & Signature Campaign to Save the Centre for Historical Studies Library in JNU

NB: The temptation of our day is to accept the intolerable, for fear of still worse to come: Hermann Rauschning, The Revolution of Nihilism (1939). DS This is an appeal to the national and global academic community at large, including JNU alumni as well as teachers’ associations, student bodies and individual professors and students across the world.… Read More Appeal & Signature Campaign to Save the Centre for Historical Studies Library in JNU

Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

Major UN report issues warning over excessive use, with one in six countries already banning the devices; Analysis: distraction and bullying are key concerns; ‘I would crank up the restrictions’: teachers on banning phones in school Smartphones should be banned from schools to tackle classroom disruption, improve learning and help protect children from cyberbullying, a… Read More Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools

The spirit of the university under threat

as India is fast moving towards some sort of electoral autocracy, we are witnessing a new kind of crisis emanating from the virus of ‘anti-intellectualism’. Don’t think critically. Don’t question the establishment. Accept the dominant discourse of development, nationalism and religion. Is it, therefore, surprising that even the slightest trace of dissent is criminalised? Avijit… Read More The spirit of the university under threat

From South Asian University Expulsion To Oxford Finally, I Can Tell My Story

NB: Congratulations, Bhimraj, for standing up to oppression and injustice. Human dignity can never be destroyed. Regradless of your admission to Oxford, you deserved just and fair treatment. Our university authorities need to understand that education is the awakening of the human spirit. Unfortunately they often behave as if they are aiming at the very… Read More From South Asian University Expulsion To Oxford Finally, I Can Tell My Story