A few years ago, at Brooklyn College, I taught a class on the formal theory of computation. We covered the usual topics: finite state automata, context-free grammars, Turing machines, computational complexity. As we worked through the theory of context-free grammars, I introduced my students to the concept of their Chomsky normal forms. As a quick preliminary,Continue reading “Noam Chomsky, My Palestinian Student, and a Gift”
Tag Archives: Brooklyn College
The Campus Bell, From School to College
When I began school, I passed into another zone of discipline. The most prominent marker of that regime of control was not the corporeal form of the stern schoolmaster but rather, the sounds of a bell ringing. It was the aural code that dominated the next twelve years of my life, slicing up the schoolContinue reading “The Campus Bell, From School to College”
The Stygian Staircase
When I first encountered the word ‘pitch-black’, a long time ago, in a children’s adventure book, I was puzzled; I asked my mother what it meant and she said, (roughly), “That means it was really, really dark, so dark you couldn’t see anything, no matter how long you waited.” Even at that tender age, IContinue reading “The Stygian Staircase”
Reflections on a Teaching-Free Semester
I started teaching at Brooklyn College eleven years ago, in Fall 2002. Since then, I have taught a varying course-load per semester, ranging from an onerous three to a manageable two and once, a luxurious one. But I’ve never had a semester ‘off’. Till this one: Spring 2013. Last year, anticipating the birth of myContinue reading “Reflections on a Teaching-Free Semester”
Glenn Greenwald on Civil Liberties and Their Willing Surrender
Today, at Brooklyn College, Glenn Greenwald delivered the 39th Samuel J. Konefsky Memorial Lecture. I was lucky enough to be in attendance and thoroughly enjoyed watching this top-notch muckraker and gadfly in action. I have often seen Greenwald speak on video but this was the first live presentation I have witnessed. It was everything it wasContinue reading “Glenn Greenwald on Civil Liberties and Their Willing Surrender”
BDS at Brooklyn College: A Sobering ‘Success’ of Sorts
All is well or so it would seem. Corey Robin reports on the latest developments in the BDS-at-Brooklyn brouhaha: Now that the mayor, the New York Times, and just about everyone else have come down hard on all the government officials and politicians who tried to force my department to withdraw its co-sponsorship of the BDS panel, theContinue reading “BDS at Brooklyn College: A Sobering ‘Success’ of Sorts”
Academic Freedom and Syllabus Construction: The Question of ‘Endorsement’ and ‘Balance’
My focus here on this blog, before the weekend’s traveling-imposed break, was academic freedom and on ignorant attempts to severely attenuate it at Brooklyn College. These attempts have relied on two patently dishonest, obfuscatory tactics: equating ‘sponsorship’ with ‘endorsement’ and with proposing ‘balance’ as a valid desideratum for academic content. Today, I want to offerContinue reading “Academic Freedom and Syllabus Construction: The Question of ‘Endorsement’ and ‘Balance’”
BDS, Brooklyn College, and Dismissing Dershowitz (For the Last Time)
Some more direct consideration of comments on my BDS at Brooklyn College and Dershowitz posts (here; here; and here). These are now settling into a familiar pattern of repetition of the same claims again and again and again, so rather than responding to each one of the comments directly, I will address them en masseContinue reading “BDS, Brooklyn College, and Dismissing Dershowitz (For the Last Time)”
BDS at Brooklyn College, Academic Freedom, and Dershowitz’s Censorship
Yesterday’s post on Alan Dershowitz‘s attempt to intimidate the Brooklyn College Political Science department into withdrawing its sponsorship of an event on the BDS movement, featuring Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, generated some interesting comments. I will offer some brief responses here. Jared Michaelson worries about departments sponsoring ‘polarizing’ debate: The concern is this: aContinue reading “BDS at Brooklyn College, Academic Freedom, and Dershowitz’s Censorship”
Alan Dershowitz, Pro-Torture Plagiarist, Deigns to Lecture Us On Intellectual Honesty
Alan Dershowitz, a pro-torture plagiarist who has inexplicably managed to find employment at Harvard Law School, has written an embarrassingly incompetent Op-Ed at the Huffington Post. In it, he accuses the Department of Political Science at Brooklyn College of having an ‘Israel problem’ because it has sponsored, and thereby, according to Dershowitz, endorsed the contentsContinue reading “Alan Dershowitz, Pro-Torture Plagiarist, Deigns to Lecture Us On Intellectual Honesty”
Samir Chopra 