Viewpoint Diversity: A Convo with the Dean

Posted on by under Uncategorized

You’re an academic. Your Dean walks in. 

“We need viewpoint diversity,” she says. 

“OK,” you say. She’s your boss. She’s obviously just read some bullshit in CHE about viewpoint diversity, and feels the need to start Deaning. Deaning demands faculty uptake, so you’d better answer. “So what do we do?”

It’s a kosher question. As it stands, her claim has no action-guiding implications. We could need viewpoint diversity, but we might already have it. Or we might have too much of it. Or we might need more. “We need it” doesn’t resolve any of that. 

“Well, we need more,” she says. It’s a non-sequitur, but you let it go. “Pretending that stupid shit isn’t stupid” is your career-long coping strategy. It’s worked so far.
Continue reading →

Institutional Neutrality Meets Viewpoint Diversity

Posted on by under Neutrality and Complicity

“Viewpoint diversity” is the view that institutions of higher education ought to cultivate a wide range of perspectives on campus to ensure that inquiry on campus proceeds in an open and lively way. It may sound to some like a truism, but it’s meant as more than a truism. If taken in the latter way, it is by definition and intention a controversial doctrine. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: Tensions in Clifton

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity

Readers of this blog may remember my earlier posts on the campaign for an Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) resolution in Clifton, New Jersey (Nov 5 and Nov 18). As mentioned in the latter post, I attended the November 5 meeting, but had to miss the November 12 one due to a scheduling issue. This is a guest post by my friend Jeff Hoey of Clifton, describing the November 12 meeting. Here is a link to the (tendentious, editorializing) Clifton Times piece Jeff mentions. Continue reading →

Zionism as Incest

Posted on by under Palestine

“Do not perform the practices of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled, and do not perform the practice of the land of Canaan to which I bring you, and do not follow their traditions.” –Leviticus 18:3

Many people will by now have seen Sarah Hurwitz’s jeremiad at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, complaining about Israel’s having lost the narrative war on social media. Hurwitz is a former Obama speechwriter, and the epitome of Democratic centrism. Her comments are notable, not for any great insight they contain or wisdom they impart, but for demonstrating just how illogical and uninformed you can be while conveying the reverse impression for decades, and while making a fabulous career for yourself in American life. They’re also an object lesson in the double standards of Zionist ideology, and what happens when a double standard collapses, as it must, into incoherent hysteria. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: West Orange (again)

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Model Resolution Being Sought
I was pleased to hear from Mayor Susan McCartney that West Orange is seeking a model ITA resolution to present to the West Orange Council for a vote.

Right now, only one member of the Council, Joyce Rudin, has explicitly expressed support for a resolution. My hope is to get some West Orange residents to join me in making the case to the Council, whether in person or by email. Please contact me by email if interested: khawajaenator at gmail. Or feel free to take the initiative on your own.

Anarchy in Baltimore!

Posted on by under anarchism, ethics, General announcements, libertarianism, liberty and the left, Neutrality and Complicity, political philosophy

EDITED to change the order of presenters:

The Molinari Society will be holding its mostly-annual Eastern Symposium in conjunction with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in Baltimore, 7-10 January 2026.

Our symposium comprises two back-to-back sessions on Wednesday afternoon (both in the same room, we hope!). Here’s the schedule info:

Molinari Society symposium: Topics in Radical Liberalism

Session 1:
G2D. Wednesday, 7 December, 2:00-3:50 p.m., Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St., Baltimore MD 21202.

chair: Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)

speakers:
Irfan Khawaja (Independent Scholar), “Academia’s Complicit Executioners: A Critique of the Kalven Committee Report”
Zachary Woodman (Western Michigan University), “Extended Cognition as Property Acquisition”

Session 2:
G3D. Wednesday, 7 December, 4:00-5:50 p.m., Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna St., Baltimore MD 21202.

chair: Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)

speakers:
Cory Massimino (Center for a Stateless Society), “A Liberal Socialism Must Also Be Left Market Anarchist”
Jason Lee Byas (Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics) “Distributed Justice: Can We Make Sense of Justice Outside the State?”

The Immigrant Trust Tour: Clifton Redux

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, migrant defense, Palestine

Chris D’Amato, Migrant Rights, and the Exploitation of Anti-Semitism
I mentioned the campaign for an Immigrant Trust Resolution in Clifton a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I had a scheduling conflict and had to miss the follow-up meeting yesterday. Below the fold is a depressing report from my friend Jeff Hoey, a Clifton resident who’s been leading the campaign. It’s a perfect example of the cynicism that masquerades as philo-Semitism nowadays–and also the right-wing virtue-signaling that passes itself off as “anti-woke.” I encountered a similar phenomenon when I spoke last week in West Orange, which I’ll describe here in the near future. It’s obviously a trend. Continue reading →

“When the World Breaks”

Posted on by under Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement

Veterans Day at Peddie

Peddie is a well-known elite prep school in New Jersey, located in Hightstown, a small town just east of Princeton. According to Niche, it’s ranked #2 out of 126 in a listing of the Best Private High Schools in New Jersey, and #2 of 112 of the Best College Prep Private Schools in New Jersey. It also ranks first out of 139 of the Most Diverse Private High Schools in New Jersey. I’m at least vaguely familiar with the place, having been there a few times, having interviewed Peddie students applying for admissions to Princeton, and having grown up myself (for better or worse) in the elite Jersey prep school milieu. In short, within its rarefied circles, Peddie is a trend-setter. Continue reading →

Yes, West Orange, This Is Your Business

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

I was pleased to see that my statement on the Immigrant Trust Act to the West Orange Town Council got headline treatment in TapInto West Orange. The reporter summarizes my statement, and then quotes Council member Joyce Rudin as favoring passage of a pro-ITA resolution:

[Regarding] the Immigrant Trust Act, I frankly, don’t know why we don’t pass a resolution. It’s been done all over the country. I don’t see how it would hurt us to offer protection, to make a statement as a community, in terms of providing protection to our immigrant community.

I’m gratified to hear that, and hope that Rudin can prevail on others, including incoming Council member Tammy Williams, to pass a resolution. Continue reading →