Organizing, Organization, and the AAUP

Academe Blog
By Hank Reichman
July 20, 2017

If there's an organized outrage machine, we need an organized response".  Those words from Tessie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, author of the excellent Lower Ed, prolific blogger, and frequent (and often witty) presence on Twitter, headline a story in this morning's Chronicle of Higher Education on the growing epidemic of online (and also direct) harassment of the left-leaning, very minority, faculty members to which the AAUP has been calling attention for some time (see also our successful fight to defend the academic freedom of Trinity College professor Johnny Williams).  The Chroniclereport summarizes a useful essay Cottom posted to her blog tat provides concrete advice for dealing with "orchestrated outrage and social media attacks on academic legitimacy."  As Drexel professor George Cicciarello-Maher, a target of such harassment earlier this year, told the Chronicle, "Some faculty think this is about a handful of individuals when in reality, it's about all of us."

Read the full article at the Academe Blog here.