The Defense of Civil Rights in Academia (DCRA)
 Project Coordinator: Zeina Zaatari

A national network with the purpose of proactively defending and securing the rights of the Arab American academic community, students, faculty and staff.

About DCRA
The DCRA is a national network with the purpose of proactively defending and securing the rights of the Arab American academic community, students, faculty and staff.  It is an open project and we encourage participation from student organizations and individuals, faculty, staff, and community members from across the United States. Please send us information pertaining to issues on your campus. Whether you are a student organization in need of assistance, a professor who is under attack, or community member who would like to support this critical project, your participation is necessary in carrying out the DCRA program. Information on how to submit information, request assistance, and join the DCRA are all included on this page.

List of DCRA National Committee Members and Supporters

Listed alphabetically by last name, comprising faculty members, writers & researchers, students, and activists throughout the United States.  All listed institutions and organizations are expressly for identification purposes only.

Feras Abou-Galala, President, Middle-Eastern Cultural Association (MCA), Ohio State University * Nasser Abufarha, Ph.D. candidate, University of Wisconsin, Madison * As'ad AbuKhalil, Ph.D., California State University, Stanislaus * Nader Abuljebain, National Board of Directors, National Council of Arab Americans, writer, Free Palestine Alliance , Los Angeles* Hussein Agrama, Ph.D, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. * Munir Al-Akash, writer and publisher, Boston * Leena Al-Arian, daughter of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, University of Southern Florida * Musa Al-Hindi, Coordinator, NCA Arab American History Project, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Nebraska * Ban Al-Wardi, Esq.,, Los Angeles * Reem Awad-Rashmawi, Esq., Coordinator, NCA Al-Kitab Project, California * Fadwa El Guindi , Ph.D., Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. * Fadhil Al-Kazily, Ph.D., California State University, Sacramento * Tammy Aranki, Arab Students Union, University of California, Berkeley * Masad Arbid , M.D., physician and writer, Los Angeles * Naseer Aruri, Ph.D., Chancellor Professor (Emeritus), University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Massachusetts * Bilal M. Ayyub, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park * Waleed Bader, National Vice Chair, National Council of Arab Americans, Vice President, Arab Muslim American Federation, New York *  Khalil Barhoum, Ph.D., Stanford University * Hanna Batarseh , Chapter president, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Sacramento, California * Hatem Bazian, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley * Muna Coobtee, Esq. , Secretary, National Council of Arab Americans, Free Palestine Alliance, Los Angeles * Souad Dajani, Ph.D., writer and researcher * Mohammed Dalbah, journalist, Washington, D.C. * Zahi Damouni, Ph.D., Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, San Diego * Lara Deeb, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine * Osama Doumani, Ph.D., writer, California * Rayan Elamine, Program Director, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco * Ashraf Elbayoumi, Ph.D., researcher, writer, Washington, D.C./Cairo * Nada Elia, Ph.D., Washington State University, Washington * Haithem El-Zabri , Solidarity Design, Los Angeles * Ali Fattom, Ph.D., Washington, D.C. * Lina Fattom, Law student, George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C. * Jamil Fayez, M.D., Professor, Washington, D.C. * Jess Ghannam , Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco * Ziad Hafez, Ph.D., economist, writer, Washington, D.C. * Elaine Hagopian, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Simmons College, Editor and contributor:  Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims, Haymarket and Pluto Books, 2004, Boston * Tamara Hamdan, University of Southern California * Isma'il Kamal, Muslim Students Association, University of California, Davis * Laila Kassis, Network of Arab American Professionals, Boston * Shouki Kassis, Ph.D., Board of Directors, National Council of Arab Americans, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Kamal Khalaf-Al-Tawil, M.D., physician and writer, Washington, D.C. * Rami Kishek, Ph.D., Maryland * Lara Kiswani, National Program Director, National Council of Arab Americans * Nabil Migalli, Board of Directors, National Council of Arab Americans, The Arab-American Forum, New Hampshire * Soheir Morsy, Ph.D., researcher & writer, Washington, D.C./Cairo * Eid Mustafa, M.D., F.A.C.S., Texas * Nadine Naber, Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor * Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D., Yale University, and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Connecticut * Fadia Rafeedie, Esq., Free Palestine Alliance, Riverside, California * Ramiz Rafeedie, Esq., American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco, California * Elias Rashmawi, National Chairperson, National Council of Arab Americans * George Saliba, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York * Michael Shahin, Esq., Coordinator, NCA Legal Assistance Program, Los Angeles * Omar Shakir , Co-President, Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Stanford University * Michel Shehadeh, Committee for Justice, Los Angeles, California * Matthew Shenoda , M.F.A., College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, San Francisco * Nina Shoman, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), California State University, Sacramento * Mounzer Sleiman, Ph .D., National Vice Chair, National Council of Arab Americans, writer/researcher, Washington, D.C. * Khalid Turaani, Executive Director of American Muslims for Jerusalem, Washington, D.C. * Zeina Zaatari, Ph.D., Defense of Civil Rights in Academia, Coordinator * Faith Zeadey, Ph.D., Professor Emerita (and current Adjunct Faculty), Worcester State College, Massachusetts

Resources

New Book:  Academic Freedom After September. Beshara Doumani, Editor.

Order book from Zone Books

Book Description:
Academic Freedom after September 11
Edited by Beshara Doumani

Are the attacks on academic freedom after 9/11 a passing storm, or do they represent a structural shift that undermines one of the pillars of democratic societies? This book brings together some of this nation's leading scholars to analyze the challenges to academic freedom posed by post-9/11 political interventions and the market-driven commercialization of knowledge, examining these issues in light of the major transformations in the system of higher education since the Second World War, including conflicting interpretations of what constitutes academic freedom.

Following an analysis of the historical significance of the post-9/11 threats to academic freedom, three strongly argued and not easily reconcilable essays by Robert Post, Judith Butler, and Philippa Strum discuss what visions of academic freedom can be defended and the best strategies for doing so. Three case studies--Kathleen J. Frydl on the loyalty-oath and free-speech controversies at the University of California, Amy Newhall on the tortured relationship between universities and the government as seen in language acquisition programs, and Joel Beinin on the policing of thought in the academy in relation to the Middle East--deepen our understanding of what is at stake.

In clear and powerful prose, these essays provide a solid platform for informed classroom and public discussions on the philosophical foundations, institutional practices, and political dimensions of academic freedom on the threshold of the twenty-first century.

Beshara Doumani is Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 and editor of Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property and Gender.
Beshara Doumani's website: http://history.berkeley.edu/faculty/Doumani/.


Table of Contents:

Preface
1. Between Coercion and Privatization: Academic Freedom in the Twenty-First Century by Beshara Doumani

Part I: Contending Visions
2. The Structure of Academic Freedom
Robert Post
3. Academic Norms, Contemporary Challenges: A Reply to Robert Post on Academic Freedom by Judith Butler
4. Why Academic Freedom? The Theoretical and Constitutional Context by Philippa Strum

Part II: Praxis
5. Trust to the Public: Academic Freedom in the Multiversity by Kathleen J. Frydl
6. The Unraveling of the Devil's Bargain: The History and Politics of Language Acquisition by Amy Newhall
7. The New McCarthyism: Policing Thought about the Middle East by Joel Beinin

Appendix
1. Association of American University Professors: 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure (with 1970 Interpretive Comments).
2. Union of Concerned Scientists: Restoring Integrity in Policy Making.
3. H.R. 3077: The International Studies in Higher Education Act.
4. New York Civil Liberties Union: Letter to Columbia University President, Lee Bollinger, in Defense of Academic Freedom.
5. Ford Foundations: January 8, 2004 Memorandum; Pursuing our Mission as a Responsible Philanthropic Institution.

Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims, Elaine Hagopian, ed

Order book from Haymarket Books.

Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims, Haymarket Books/Pluto Press 2004, is one of 10 winners of the 2004 Myers Outstanding Book Award, a national competition of the Gustavus Myers Center, a tiny Boston-based center and coast-to-coast network.
Civil Rights in Peril was selected by a diverse panel of reviewers from across the country who commended Hagopian and essayists Susan M. Akram, Naseer Aruri, M. Cherif Bassiouni, Samih Farsoun, Kevin R. Johnson, Robert Morlino, Nancy Murray and Will Youmans for their cogent analyses of the relationship between accelerated repression of Muslims and Arabs domestically, and U.S. empire building abroad.

Elaine Hagopian, one of the country’s most respected analysts of Middle East affairs, has brought together a group of astute commentators who give us a refreshingly critical view of the current demonization of Muslims and Arabs. What she and the others make clear is the deadly connection between this phenomenon and U.S. behavior in the Middle East.
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

The “war on terror” re-declared by the Bush administration after 9/11 has provided the rhetorical framework for foreign and domestic policies grounded in quite different commitments. These careful and informative inquiries provide much insight into some of the central issues of contemporary world affairs, at home and abroad.
—Noam Chomsky, author of Hegemony or Survival

Since September 11, U.S. media and popular culture have treated Arabs and Muslims as fanatics, terrorists, and suspects: this volume treats them as human beings. These are the forgotten victims of September 11, whose rights have been curtailed, activities monitored, and charities closed down or suppressed.
—As`ad AbuKhalil, California State University, Stanislaus

In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has targeted Muslims and Arabs using secret evidence, secret arrests, and detentions without due process of law. These departures from our constitutional norms are sending shock waves through Arab and Muslim communities in the United States and abroad, and they are placing all Americans at risk.
—Nancy Chang, senior litigation attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights

What an amazing book—it gives a cogent, intelligent, and political explanation of the relationship between the repression of Muslims and Arabs domestically and U.S. empire building abroad. It increased my understanding hundredfold. Buy it, read it, and fight back!
—Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights, attorney for Guantanamo detainees

This powerful anthology, edited by well-known scholar and activist Elaine C. Hagopian, includes essays by Susan M. Akram and Kevin R. Johnson, Naseer Aruri, M. Cherif Bassiouni, Samih Farsoun, Robert Morlino, Nancy Murray, and Will Youmans.

Haymarket Books and Pluto Press 2004, isbn 0745322654, 320 pgs., paperback..

Links

 

Join
To join the DCRA and/or be added to the national listserve, please email: dcra @arab-american.net with the subject line “join”.

The DCRA list serve includes students, activists, community members and faculty. It is open to anyone who would like to join and serves the purpose of networking individuals and various campuses to share ideas, information and strategize to work on defending academic freedom.
Contact


To get in touch with the DCRA representative in your area or request further information, please email Dr. Zeina Zaatari, the DCRA National Coordinator, or contact the NCA National Office.