Can Middle East Studies Regain Credibility?

That's the title of my latest column in the Washington Examiner (a copy with links is here).

I assess a new document titled "Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility after 9/11: A Handbook for Scholars and Teachers" by the Taskforce on Middle East Anthropology. It's a decidedly mixed bag, but beyond a doubt it illustrates the effects that Campus Watch, bloggers, writers on higher education, and the conservative nonprofit world have had on Middle East studies in American universities.

Not that all will now be well--far from it. But the mandarins who control MES would never have produced such a document were they not very worried about their reputations and the future of their field. Which is to say, they're now on the defensive; it's up to all of us to press our case day after day.