The Middle Eastern Studies Dept.
at The University made it to the National Review. Rachel Zabarkes Friedman”s article Diversity at Princeton: The quieter front of the Middle East-studies battles explains,
Middle East studies has become blatantly politicized, with many professors abrogating their responsibility to even try for balance in the classroom. Schools that allow for genuine diversity in this area are, according to analysts, few and far between. And at one such school, Princeton — some would say the only such school — proponents of ideological conformity are itching to prevent a rising-star scholar with dissenting views from receiving a tenured post in his department.
Princeton’s Middle East battle is quieter than Columbia’s, but in a way it’s no less important. At its center is Michael Doran, an assistant professor and protégé of Bernard Lewis who teaches the modern politics of the region in the university’s Near Eastern Studies department.
The quarrel isn’t limited to the NES department, but also to the history department. At the heart of it lies the struggle between those who emphasize top-quality scholarship, not politics, and those who insist politics is what it’s all about — which, in a sense, it is. May scholarship win.