by Unknown | 4/24/2008 08:58:00 AM
Congratulations to Gordon Taylor, who has just established his own blog, The Pasha and the Gypsy. He'll continue to post here as well, but definitely head on over there and check it out.

If you're an academic historian (or in training to become one), make sure to fill out this survey, designed by our own Sterling Fluharty (PhDinHistory). Hat tip.

Robert Zimmerman sends along two blog posts about KC Johnson, rehashing the debate over whether his blog Durham-in-Wonderland promoted a racist backlash against 88 Duke University professors. I have little to add beyond my earlier post on the subject, except to reiterate that I disagree with Zimmerman about who was most at fault in this case. You can say that KC was racially insensitive, you can say that he weighted things improperly in his criticism, you can say that he utterly failed at controlling his commentariat when it turned into a lynch mob against black academics -- I would say there's merit to all these allegations. But none of them even comes close to the conduct of 88 Duke faculty who signed a statement publicly calling three white students rapists and then (with one exception) never recanted despite the obvious untruth of those allegations. KC is guilty of making mistakes, bad ones; the Group of 88 is guilty of unspeakable misconduct toward their own university's students. There's just no comparison. (Did I mention that Zimmerman is a professor at Duke?)

Diane at The Wild, Wild Left is running an Earth Day Essay Contest. The deadline has been extended to April 30, and essays must be posted at WWL (anyone can set up an account). The winner receives a privileged link in the top right-hand corner of the site, which could be very useful for some of the smaller bloggers. Head on over and write your essay today!

What's on your mind?

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