Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Reclaiming the Watch List - Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed

Professor Watchlist faces challenge from Watchlist Redux, where being named is intended as a badge of honor and where "radical" applies to Socrates, Jesus and Alan Turing, as well as those singled out today. Some professors were troubled by Professor Watchlist when it debuted last month, viewing it as a serious threat to academic freedom. Yet others saw the site -- which names and monitors professors “who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom” (the “promoting anti-American values” criterion has since been removed) -- as more annoying than dangerous. Some submitted complaints about Indiana Jones, Professor Plum or other fictional academics, for example. Others joked they wished they'd been named, saying they’d wear it as a badge of honor. But now Professor Watchlist has met its match in a new blog, Watchlist Redux, where being named is intended as a badge of honor. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/12/06/professor-watchlist-receives-challenge-new-blog-watch-list-redux-where-being-named