Abstract of the Week! (II)

Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 31-40 (2009):

Some Academics Try to Push Back: Ward Churchill, the War on Truth, and the Improbabilities of Interruption

C. Richard King
Washington State University

In this essay, the author outlines the limits of critical inquiry in the wake of 9/11 through a close reading of public reaction to Ward Churchill and his essay "Some People Push Back." Following an overview of the public panic and its fallout, the author details the forces and feelings that have converged to contain academic freedom and public intellectuals. Against this background, the author unpacks the key terms and tactics employed to delegitimize Churchill, highlighting the important intersection of the moral rhetoric of the cultural wars with the colonial discourse of the war on terror around the notion of civilization and those hostile to it.

Key Words: civilization • culture wars • neoconservativism • public intellectuals • war on terror

Other key terms: fraud * liar * plagiarist * bully boy * Keetowah

Unfortunately, SageJournalsOnline wants $20 for a temp pass to see the whole piece, and there's no way I'm going to pay that on the mere hope (well, assurance) of a larf or two at King's po-mo "unpackings." Maybe JWP (who, by the way, notes an offhand diss of Wart in a wall 'o' words correspondence between two "animal liberationists") and that pedophile parrot of his will be willing to pay (he--the parrot--has fancy bathrooms).