"Can I sit down now, Teacher?"
The Modern Language Association has been holding a conference this week in Chicago. Fresh in the tracks of the ill-fated resolution of the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academics, the MLA is arguing over whether to pass their own nasty statement about Israel. Apparently, they are playing hardball with those in their organization who disagree. In addition, they have a lot of fun activities that have so much to do with language. You can assess their program here via Campus Reform.
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5352
As to Israel, Algemeiner has a report on how MLA is trying to align themselves with their soul mates in the ASA.
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/09/the-mlas-top-five-bds-blunders-this-week/
If you are wondering what any of this stuff with Israel has to do with language, join the club. More importantly, there is the question of MLA's tax-exempt status. I heard today that someone has filed a lawsuit challenging the tax-exempt status of ASA. I welcome that news. Similarly, if MLA wants to get involved in political matters that have nothing to do with language or whatever other "scholarly" work they do, maybe someone should examine their tax exempt status.
1 comment:
Better yet, we should simply abolish tax exempt statuses, period. Everyone pays their taxes, and then we are all free to donate money (on which tax has been fully paid) to whatever cause or purpose we wish. That takes the IRS out of the business of giving its seal of approval.
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