A little over a week ago, a colleague wrote to me out of the blue to tell me that I had been added to Professor Watchlist. The list, compiled by the conservative group Turning Point USA in the wake of the US election, identifies university faculty who purportedly deserve close scrutiny for their liberal, “un-American” views.
I followed the link and saw my face—a photo a friend had taken in his living room hallway now repurposed into a mugshot of sorts. A brief description followed, highlighting an essay I’d written for Inside Higher Ed in the midst of the national debate over “safe spaces” on college campuses. The essay had gotten me on the list.
The Gilder Lehrman Center’s new blog, Scholars on Watch: Dispatches from History for the Present provides a civil and thoughtful online space in which scholars and engaged colleagues may write an occasional commentary drawing on the broad field of slavery, abolition, modern slavery, and their legacies.
The short essays we post are intended to bring the insights of history and other disciplines to bear on the immediate and long-term issues we face in our current political times, aiming toward broad, general audiences. As we grapple with the consequences of the recent election’s aftermath, the issues that concern us include extremist right wing forces entering the government as never before; the empowerment of white supremacist sentiment and action; and increasing challenges to evidence-based truths. We inaugurate the blog with two pieces, one by Carol Lasser of Oberlin College, and the other by John Pepper of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.
As scholars of United States history, we have experienced concern and alarm as we went from a divisive campaign season to the election of Donald Trump as our president-elect. On the eve of a new administration whose key players have traded in hateful rhetoric and emboldened the harassment of various targets, we urge Americans to be vigilant against a mass violation of civil rights and liberties that could result if such troubling developments continue unchecked. Looking back on World War II and the Cold War, we recognize how easily the rights of people have been suspended during times of great uncertainty. A key lesson of such ordeals has been to never again repeat these mistakes, and so we issue a call to recognize and act upon the critical links between historical knowledge, informed citizenship, and the protection of civil and human rights.
November 9 – Incredibly, worryingly, Donald Trump was elected to be the 45th President of our Nation last night. Volumes will be written about this campaign and how he won and Clinton lost. It took an unimaginable confluence of circumstances for a man rejected by much/most of his own party, representing by his own words and actions values and a character which would not even have allowed him to be interviewed by a major corporation and who parents would have warned their children to ignore as being a bigot and mean to win this election.
As a member of Historians Against Slavery, I have followed the current post-election situation with great anxiety and much thought about what happens when the American political system is under stress. I am grateful to colleagues like Jim Stewart and John Donoghue who share news about ways we can use our academic and intellectual credentials to better understand and undertake resistance. But please consider for a moment the particular risks we run.
We invite scholars to offer a commentary; an experience; an idea related to students, courses, policy, curriculum; and suggestions for how to employ historical knowledge and humanities scholarship to confront the challenges we face. We reserve the right to accept or reject postings, and may do small editing. We ask that essays not exceed 500-600 words. We especially invite our colleagues across the professions in academia and in public history to offer their ideas and wisdom about how best to use the past in order to comprehend and live effectively in the present. Please send essays or blogs to gilder.lehrman.center@yale.edu with the subject heading SCHOLARS ON WATCH.
As scholars of United States history, we have experienced concern and alarm as we went from a divisive campaign season to the election of Donald Trump as our president-elect. On the eve of a new administration whose key players have traded in hateful rhetoric and emboldened the harassment of various targets, we urge Americans to be vigilant against a mass violation of civil rights and liberties that could result if such troubling developments continue unchecked. Looking back on World War II and the Cold War, we recognize how easily the rights of people have been suspended during times of great uncertainty. A key lesson of such ordeals has been to never again repeat these mistakes, and so we issue a call to recognize and act upon the critical links between historical knowledge, informed citizenship, and the protection of civil and human rights.
