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May 15, 2005

Re: Profs who argue with their students could get sued

Forwarded from: -To: Language in New Capitalism lnc@listserv.cddc.vt.edu

I am obsereving a rather intricate network of discourses relating to the so called left-wing bias in higher education in the US. Drawing from Henry Giroux's "The Terror of Neoliberalism" I am starting to see this network as necessary if the prot-fascist agenda is to take hold. It is a late capitalist version of book burning. Intellectuals and scholars who question the consolidation of power are a threat to rising fascism, so we must be delegitimized in the eyes of the public. Portraying us as left wing extremists, terrorists, and the elite who are out of touch with 'common sense' is an effective way to neutralize our dissent. Powerful figures such as Lynn Cheyney are among the leaders of these organizations.

An assistant professor of higher education, I am quite interested in analyzing these discourses and their effects on intellectual freedom. My research agenda relates to colleges and universities as sites of ideological struggle. Though I am new to discourse studies, I see that critical analysis of these discourses is of paramount importance. Any ideas about how I might approach the right-wing assault on higher learning would be appreciated (dfayers@uncg.edu).

For those who are interested, here's a list of some more websites that threaten academic freedom in the US:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/

http://www.goacta.org/flashindex.html (Lynn Cheyney's organization)

http://www.nas.org/

http://www.popecenter.org/

http://www.thefire.org/

http://www.noindoctrination.org/

http://www.sa4c.com/

http://www.yaf.org/

http://edworkforce.house.gov/

These sites are rather disturbing.

David
_____________________________
David Franklin Ayers, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor of Higher Education
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
UNC Greensboro
dfayers@uncg.edu
http://www.uncg.edu/~dfayers

Posted by jason at May 15, 2005 09:33 AM

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