Colby College's department of history just routinely announced a position for visiting assistant professor in Middle East/Islamic History for the 2022-23 academic year. Routine, but also notable.
 Colby College, Waterville, Maine. |
Four decades ago, I might have applied for this post and perhaps even have won the chance to fill it. These days, though, the job description makes clear that I, as a conservative scholar, would have no chance. Note the bolded elements in the announcement screaming out "conservatives need not apply":
- The Department is a community of engaged teacher-scholars.
- We are particularly interested in hearing from candidates who will bring to the classroom experiences, identities, ideas, and ways of engaging that will resonate with History's, and Colby's, increasingly diverse student body.
- We are searching for candidates with great potential to be innovative, effective, and inclusive teachers of history.
- [The candidate's] statement of teaching philosophy and the statement of research interests should demonstrate commitment to the values of diversity and inclusivity.
While seemingly innocuous, such terms as engaged, identity, diversity, and inclusivity actually exclude anyone not on the Left. Indeed, "diversity, equity and inclusion" (or DEI) is the progressives' main workplace mantra.
Further, demanding that a candidate's "teaching philosophy and the statement of research interests should demonstrate commitment to the values of diversity and inclusivity" is particularly insidious. This not only weeds out anyone not on the Left but ensures that this outlook is ingrained into the scholar's future work.
Thus does the Left lock in its influence on the academy's personnel, teaching, and research.
The only way to break this lock is by creating new institutions with enormous reach. That is possible, but it requires both imagination (very few individual Americans found new universities these days) and money, preferably lots of it. Still, that money does potentially exist, as I noted in 2019:
Frederick M. Hess and Brendan Bell do the math and conclude that such a university would cost $3.4 billion to build and endow in perpetuity. That's a tidy sum but donors in 2017 gave $43.6 billion to higher education. $3.4 billion is also but a fraction of some conservatives' vast wealth (hello Charles and David, hello Sheldon, hello Rupert).
Until and unless such new institutions come into being, it appears the leftward drift will continue.
As a coda to the Colby College job announcement, note the long and exotic list of categories on the basis of which it declares it does not discriminate: "race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, pregnancy, parental or marital status, national or ethnic origin, caste, political beliefs, or disability unrelated to job or course of study requirements."
Curiously, in another announcement of the same opening, this one posted at the Middle East Studies Association, Colby's non-discriminatory list is shorter and quite different; the bolded words mark what differs between the two versions: "race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, religion, ancestry or national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, or veteran's status."
Some variations (caste, genetic information) are bizarre, and others (political beliefs) important. One can only wonder which of an applicant's features Colby and others will not discriminate against in the future: maybe height, hair color, right- or left-handedness, and obesity. Or perhaps the knowledge of languages, IQ, teaching skills, and quality of research. The university's future as engineered by American progressives knows no bounds.
Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes), president of the Middle East Forum, has taught at four universities. © 2021 by Daniel Pipes. All rights reserved.
Nov. 10, 2021 update: Well, this is refreshing, from a New York University announcement of an opening for "an outstanding junior scholar in any social science or humanities discipline whose research offers a critical perspective on the contemporary Middle East and would complement the strengths of our existing faculty in Middle Eastern Studies." Further down, it states: "NYU affirms the value of differing perspectives on the world as we strive to build the strongest possible university with the widest reach."
Mar. 21, 2022 update: This is the most extreme restriction I have seen, though it is not a political one: the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo has announced an assistant professor position in "Climate Change, Water or Future Cities." Bu there's a catch: "This call is open only to qualified individuals who self-identify as women, transgender, non-binary, or two-spirit."
For non-Canadians, two-spirit is a legal term in Canada
used within some Indigenous communities, encompassing cultural, spiritual, sexual and gender identity. The term reflects complex Indigenous understandings of gender roles, spirituality, and the long history of sexual and gender diversity in Indigenous cultures. Individual terms and roles for Two-Spirit people are specific to each nation. The word "Two-Spirit" was created in the early 1990s, by a group of Two-Spirit community members and leaders. Due to its cultural, spiritual, and historical context, the concept of "Two-Spirit" is to be used only by Indigenous people. However, not all Indigenous people who hold diverse sexual and gender identities consider themselves Two-Spirit, many identify themselves as LGBTQ+.
