The Faculty Lounge

Dos Land Iz Dayn Land

Presented by the Forverts:

The subtitles should help. The accents are excellent. I was especially delighted by this line: "Fun di groyse ozeres/biz di breyte yamen." It means "from the Great Lakes to the wide seas." Of course, I appreciate adding the Great Lakes to the song, but the line is also etymologically fascinating. Some of the words -- groyse, breyte -- are Yiddish/germanic. "Ozeres," however, comes from Russian (Озеро/Ozyero), and "Yamen" is from the Hebrew "Yam." Both words, however, have Yiddish plurals tacked on. Anyhow, Yiddish is indeed a cosmopolitan language, with three unrelated source languages found in a single phrase.

While Woody Guthrie's lyrics basically go from California to the East Coast twice (the Gulf Stream is in the Atlantic Ocean, though perhaps he meant the Gulf Coast), the Canadian lyrics are more evenly geographically distributed: "From Bonavista/to Vancouver Island/From the Arctic Circle/to the Great Lakes waters."

Gonzaga Law Faculty Hiring Announcement: 2 VAPs

The first is geared at aspiring law professors: a visiting assistant professor (VAP) for its Center for Law, Ethics, and Commerce, a centerpiece of Gonzaga Law School’s identity and mission. Persons with strong academic records, a dedicated commitment to teaching, and the potential for outstanding scholarship are encouraged to apply. The position is a full-time, 9-month, visiting position beginning in August 2021, with the potential to renew for one (but no more than one) additional year (contingent upon funding). The fellow may be permitted to work entirely remotely.  

The successful candidate will teach up to three courses in the academic year in areas related to the Center and its mission, including at least one upper-level Business Law elective. Experiential and clinical teaching are also optional. The candidate will work closely with the Director of the Center for Law, Ethics, and Commerce to plan and participate in activities related to the Center’s goals and mission. In addition, the VAP will be invited to participate in faculty workshops and will be offered a budget for scholarship and travel. More information here: https://gonzaga.peopleadmin.com/postings/15150 

The second position is for a VAP with two or more years' experience. Persons with strong academic records, teaching experience, and the potential for outstanding teaching are encouraged to apply. The position is a 9-month, one-year terminal visiting position beginning in August 2021. The applicant will teach two courses per semester with particular interest in the following: civil procedure, civil rights, administrative law, international law, employment law, international business transactions, and others. Gonzaga University School of Law’s mission and diversity statements are available at: https://www.gonzaga.edu/school-of-law/about/mission-vision. 

The successful candidate will teach two courses per semester with particular interest in the following: civil procedure, civil rights, administrative law, international law, employment law, international business transactions, and others. The faculty member will be invited to faculty workshops and other events. More information here: https://gonzaga.peopleadmin.com/postings/15149 

Runaway

"Runaway" was written by Del Shannon and his keyboardist Max Crook in 1961, charting that year at number one. It is ranked 472 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. When I came across the 1977 performance by Bonnie Raitt (don't miss the four-harp solo) I figured that I would probably find many more covers, but I was wrong. I only found a few, and most were not live performances.

Kevin Cieply Stepping Down as Dean of Ave Maria Law

Kevin Cieply will be stepping down from his position as dean of Ave Maria Law at the end of this month.  Professor Euguene Milhizer, the dean emeritus of the law school, will step in as interim dean as the school begins a search for a new leader. 

Oklahoma Law Seeks Faculty for Chair in Civil Rights, Race and Justice

This just in:

Seventy years ago, Dr. Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher became the first African American student admitted to the University of Oklahoma College of Law after a three-year legal battle that culminated in a unanimous United States Supreme Court decision. She forever changed OU. The University of Oklahoma College of Law proudly announces that applications and nominations are now being accepted for the Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Chair in Civil Rights, Race and Justice, which honors both the principles of equality and justice for which Dr. Sipuel Fisher stood along with those of her attributes that secured them.

Echoing the means through which Dr. Sipuel Fisher’s legal battle was funded, the Chair results from a year-long campaign inviting contributions of all sizes and sources. First launched in fall 2019, over 80 students, faculty and staff colleagues, alumni and friends joined Dr. Sipuel Fisher’s vision in the effort to raise funds sufficient for endowment, an effort completed in fall 2020 through a major gift by an alumnus and associated family foundation who believe in that which characterizes Dr. Sipuel Fisher’s life and work.

Qualifications
The Chair, which will be appointed in the College of Law at the rank of Associate or Full Professor commensurate with experience, is dedicated to a legal scholar who holds an established interest in and deep knowledge of civil rights law, election laws, race and the law, anti-discrimination law, equal rights and diversity in law, and critical race theory. At least half of the successful applicant’s annual teaching load must fall within these arenas, with teaching and research conducted primarily at the College of Law. Candidates must hold a J.D. or its equivalent from an accredited institution and a demonstrated record of academic or experiential accomplishment, along with the ability to teach, mentor and lead students in ways that blend theory with practice, encouraging the development of experiential opportunities through which civil rights can be safeguarded and enhanced. Moreover, candidates must demonstrate experience and the ability to work both within and beyond the academic realm with disenfranchised communities, parties of varying socio-economic backgrounds, and/or non-English speaking populations, and are expected to engage scholarship at high levels for substantial time. To further honor Dr. Sipuel Fisher, the successful candidate will preferably hold qualities similar to those that guided her struggle and her achievements: courage, integrity, tenacity, intellect, vision, and love. The ideal candidate will demonstrate creativity and innovation in teaching, research, and community engagement. The candidate will showcase various theories centered around race relations in Oklahoma and across the United States.

Application Instructions
The appointment will begin between August 2021 and January 2022, with application review beginning immediately and remaining open until final selection is made and the position is filled. Applicants are encouraged to apply at their earliest convenience with a letter of interest, a resume, and the name, physical and e-mail address, and telephone number of no more than five references. Submission of materials as PDF attachments is strongly encouraged. Nominations are also solicited. For specific questions about the position and application process, please contact search committee chair Katheleen R. Guzman at kguzman@ou.edu.

All application materials should be submitted online via ByCommittee/Interfolio: http://apply.interfolio.com/83539.

For more information about The University of Oklahoma College of Law, please visit https://www.law.ou.edu/. Learn more about the surrounding college campus and Oklahoma City metropolitan area by visiting http://www.ou.edu/flipbook or http://soonerway.ou.edu.

The Ethics of Forwarding an Outside Colleague's Paper to One's Home Law Review

In an old Ethicist column from 2018 at the New York Times, Kwame Anthony Appiah (NYU) addressed a reader's question about the practice of asking one's law faculty friends at other schools to forward the "outsider's" paper to the student law review editors at the recipient's home institution. Here's an excerpt from the reader's question:

In recent years, a practice has developed in which authors send their manuscripts to friends on other law faculties and ask them to recommend their paper for publication to the editors of their school’s law journal. Law students understandably feel pressure to defer to the professors who give them grades and who are far more experienced.

I don’t know how common the practice is, though I suspect that many authors who submit to law reviews are unaware of it. On the positive side, the practice means that a professor vets the article. And it is no different from the common practice of using your connections to get ahead. * * *

In short, to the extent law-review placements are thought to be a statement about the quality of the article — a view that, despite what I say above, I find hard to shake in myself — a result of this practice is that placements may send a misleading signal about the article. That has not stopped me from engaging in it once or twice. Did I behave unethically? Is it relevant that students are involved?

Appiah's response doesn't quite address the reader's question (and I myself am not sure if the reader was a sender or a forwarder of the law review article), but here's Appiah's take:

As you’ve made clear, the practice of faculty recommendation puts pressures on law-review editors that may involve the abuse of power, temptations to toady and a host of other unfortunate effects. . . . [S]ome meliorative steps can be taken. Law reviews could adopt an explicit policy that they will not consider articles sent to them via the faculty of their own institution. Indeed, they could simply circulate a letter to their own faculty asking them not to do this. 

H/T Leandra Lederman.

Over on Twitter (here), Leandra Lederman (Indiana Maurer) explains her policy of declining any requests to forward colleagues' articles to her home institution's law review, for fear of putting the proverbial "thumb on the scale for a friend," thereby putting uncomfortable pressure on students.

My guess is that practices and views depend on multiple variables, including the relative "rank" of the sender's and receiver's home institutions (and associated issues of perceived prestige or quality) in some cases. It's a tricky issue, for sure. Until reading the thread on Twitter, I hadn't considered the unintended pressure that these sorts of forwards might place on the receiving student editors vis-à-vis the faculty at their school. Again, that may depend on many factors, but the student perspective makes me think about the issue in a new way.

 

Continue reading the main story

 

 

UNT-Dallas Law Seeks Visiting Faculty for Legal Writing, Business, Other Areas

This just in:

The UNT Dallas College of Law seeks a Visiting Professor to teach twelve credit hours for the 2020-2021 academic year. The College of Law is interested in persons with all substantive legal interests, but we are particularly interested in persons able to teach Business Associations, Commercial Law (Sales & Secured Transactions), and Transactional & Business Topics (seminar). Additional information is available here: https://jobs.untsystem.edu/postings/42531.

We also seek a Visiting Professor to teach twelve credit hours in our Legal Writing program during academic year 2021-2022. The program includes first year Legal Writing and upper-level Legal Writing courses. Additional information is available here: https://jobs.untsystem.edu/postings/42599.

Success on the Naturalization Test

The Biden administration is dumping the ill-considered, hastily written, and politically biased naturalization test that was introduced in the waning days of Trump’s presidency. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service has announced that it will go back to the 2008 test (piloted and adopted under the Bush 43 administration) as soon March 1, allowing for some overlap to accommodate citizenship applicants who already studied for the Trump test.

As I wrote last year on Politico, Trump’s test was potentially twice as long as its predecessor, and definitely more complex and more politically skewed. For example,

Here are two questions on the new naturalization test, as well as the only approved answers from the USCIS study guide, now embodying the Trump administration’s revisionist approach to government:

1. 31. Who does a U.S. senator represent?

• • Citizens of their state

1. 33. Who does a member of the House of Representatives represent?

• • Citizens in their [congressional] district

The acceptable answers have been changed from the 2008 iteration of the test, which accurately (at least for now, unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise) stated that U.S. senators represent “all people of the state.”

Does that mean anyone who answers “all people” rather than “citizens” will be marked incorrect? The examinations are administered orally by individual USCIS officers, who have some discretion, so it is impossible to know how often “all the people of the state” would be considered wrong, perhaps leading to a flunked test.

Reverting to the 2008 test will make other needed corrections. The first section of the test will again be titled “Principles of American Democracy,” which the authoritarian Trump administration had ominously changed to “Principles of American Government.”

Hiring Announcement: Faulkner University, Jones School of Law (Visiting Faculty)

From an email message that I received earlier today:

Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law is seeking qualified applicants for one or more visiting faculty positions for the 2021–2022 academic year. Areas of particular interest include Torts, Evidence, Dispute Resolution, Business Law, and Criminal Law. Candidates must possess a strong academic background and a J.D. degree from an ABA-approved law school. A strong record of legal scholarship and teaching excellence is preferred. Faulkner University is a Christian university committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values. The Law School gives preference in hiring to qualified candidates who are members of the churches of Christ. Additionally, the law school is actively recruiting candidates who may bring greater racial, ethnic, and gender diversity to the faculty. Information regarding Faulkner Law’s programs is available at law.faulkner.edu.

For initial application, please send a cover letter and current curriculum vitae with references to Dean Charles Campbell at ccampbell@faulkner.edu. For full consideration, applications should be received by March 1, 2021. Application review will begin immediately and continue until the positions are filled.

Employment is conditional upon a satisfactory background check and verification of work authorization through E-Verify.

Non-discrimination statement:  Faulkner University is a church-affiliated liberal arts institution committed to employing a highly qualified and diverse administration, faculty and staff, which reflects the University’s religious traditions, values, affiliation, and purpose. Thus, the institution invites individuals affiliated with the churches of Christ to submit applications regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, marital status, or disability. Faulkner University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, marital status, or disability in connection with its educational policies, admissions, financial aid, employment, educational programs, or activities. However, Faulkner University exercises a preference in employment for those qualified applicants who are members of the churches of Christ. Please refer to our website for further information. www.faulkner.edu

Cornel West Blames It on the Zionists

Cornel West has held prestigious positions at many institutions, including at least two endowed "University Professorships" -- the highest academic rank -- at Harvard and Princeton, and chairs at Yale, the University of Paris, and the Union Theological Seminar, and he has lectured widely at universities around the world. He left Harvard in 2002 in a very public dispute with then-president Lawrence Summers, taking an endowed chair at Princeton. In 2017, he rejoined the faculty of the Harvard Divinity School in a non-tenure track position as Victor S. Thomas Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy. Evidently nearing the end of his five year contract, West applied to be switched to a tenured position. He was turned down, which West considers disrespectful. In an interview with Chronicle of HigherEducation, he said: "My ridiculous situation at Harvard is a symptom of a much larger crisis in higher education. First, Black scholars and too many others are too often disrespected, devalued, or dismissed."

I have no strong opinion about West's situation. He apparently joined Harvard in a non-tenure eligible position, and he has now been offered a ten year extension at a high salary. West is surely an important and highly regarded public intellectual, so perhaps there was an implicit understanding or assumption that he would later be able to switch to a tenured position.

So why would Harvard create yet another public dispute with West, given his his history and stature. West thinks he knows the reason. It was the Zionists. Seriously, he has said repeatedly that his request for tenure was rejected only because of his critique of Israel. Although he has offered no proof or even specifics of the conspiracy, he told CHE:

In my case, my controversial and outspoken views about and critiques of empire, capitalism, white supremacy, male supremacy, and homophobia are tolerated, but any serious engagement around the issues of the Israeli occupation are rendered highly suspect and reduced to anti-Jewish hatred or prejudice.

And, regarding disapproval by "he powers that be at Harvard,"

So, I surmise it must be my deep Christian witness based on the idea that an ugly Israeli occupation of precious Palestinians is as wrong as any ugly Palestinian occupation of precious Jews.

Also,

[T]wo brilliant scholars critical of the U.S. empire and Israeli occupation — a Black Dominican woman and a Jewish Israeli woman — have been denied tenure. I see a pattern here.

He also put it this way in a tweet:

Is Harvard a place for a free Black man like myself whose Christian faith & witness put equal value on Palestinian & Jewish babies- like all babies- & reject all occupations as immoral?

The beauty of the anti-Israel conspiracy theory is that it requires no actual evidence. Once something bad or unfavorable happens, blame reflexively falls on Israel or Zionists (or among certain company, Jews). West, for example, repeatedly states that his other radical beliefs are acceptable to Harvard, including his critique of capitalism, which might be most offensive to donors, and his "joyful support" of Bernie Sanders. Thus, having eliminated all of the other possible objections, the only remaining source of his woes among the "powers that be" must be backers of Israel. The CHE interviewer did not follow up or ask West for proof of his supposition. The complaint proves itself. West does not specifically name the "powers that be," of course, though he once referred to Lawrence Summers as "the Ariel Sharon of American higher education."

To quote Cornel West: I see a pattern here.

Save the University Press of Kansas

University presses are important scholarly resources, but they have regularly been jeopardized by university administrations looking for budget cuts. This is a bizarre situation, given how little money presses require for support, and how much benefit they collectively confer on the academic community. The most recently endangered press is the University Press of Kansas, which serves all six public universities in the state: Kansas University, Kansas State, Wichita State, Emporia State, Fort Hays State, and Pittsburg State. As reported by Gerard Magliocca at Balkinization, the university Board of Regents have ordered an audit to “decide how or if the press will continue to operate.”

Defunding the University Press of Kansas would be an academic disaster. For a relatively small press, UPK consistently publishes important and high quality books. Its several series – on the Civil War, military history, and constitutional studies – are very highly regarded. Its series on “great cases” is unparalleled. Given the quality of the books and authors, it is likely that at least some titles would be picked up by other presses if UPK were to be eviscerated or eliminated. But that would not be the case for the press’s specialty of books on Kansas, the Great Plains, and the Midwest. Those important titles might well go unpublished, much to the detriment of the history, ecology, art, and archeology of Kansas itself.

Me and Bobby McGee

Kris Kristofferson (with Fred Foster) originally wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" for Roger Miller, a gifted country music performer whose work often included humor. Miller's release reached number 12 on the country music charts but did not cross over.  Janis Joplin's version, recorded only a few days before her death, became a number one hit in 1971, making her only the second artist (after Otis Redding) to reach number one posthumously.  Many other artists have recorded "Me and Bobby McGee," including Kristofferson himself, of course. (Don't miss the historical interest, Icelandic, and Serbian versions at the bottom of this post.)