Winfield Myers: Can Middle East studies regain credibility?

A new handbook for professors of Middle East studies attempts to restore credibility to a discipline whose reputation has been shattered by years of politicized scholarship, one-sided teaching, and bullying students.

The publication of “Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility after 9/11: A Handbook for Scholars and Teachers” by the Taskforce on Middle East Anthropology testifies to the effectiveness of organizations and individuals whose critiques of Middle East studies and higher education have put the professoriate on the defensive. Absent these efforts to shed light on the abuses so common in the discipline, the mandarins of MES would never have bowed to public opinion with this welcome, but flawed, document.