For those shocked into disbelief: Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles (Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies) Paperback – April 9, 2024 by Cary Nelson (Author) See all formats and editions Completed shortly before Hamas carried out its barbaric October massacre, Hate Speech and Academic Freedom takes up issues that have consequently gained new urgency in the academy worldwide. It is the first book to ask what impact antisemitism has had on the fundamental principles the academy relies on for its identity—academic freedom, free speech rights, standards for hiring or firing faculty members and administrators, and the ethics of academic conduct and debate. Antisemitic hatred is spreading at a fever pitch. What steps can counter it? What damage to students is done when departments embrace anti-Zionism? Should faculty members face consequences for promoting antisemitism on social media? Should universities make a new push to adopt the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism? Report an issue with this product or seller Print length 332 pages Language English Publisher Academic Studies Press Publication date April 9, 2024 Next slide of product details Sponsored Frequently bought together Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles (Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies) This item: Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles (Critical Contemporary Antisemitism Studies) $45.00 + Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State $18.80 Total price: $63.80 Add both to Cart Customers who viewed this item also viewedPage 1 of 2Page 1 of 2 Previous set of slides Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State Cary Nelson 4.5 out of 5 stars 22 Paperback -6%$18.80 List: $20.00 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon The Right To Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom The Right To Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom Jennifer Ruth 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 Paperback -21%$19.83 List: $24.95 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews David L. Bernstein 4.4 out of 5 stars 158 Paperback $19.00 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice Adam Kirsch 4.7 out of 5 stars 114 Hardcover -16%$20.95 List: $24.99 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Next set of slides Similar items that may deliver to you quicklyPage 1 of 2Page 1 of 2 Previous set of slides The Right To Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom The Right To Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom Jennifer Ruth 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 Paperback -21%$19.83 List: $24.95 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, & the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State Cary Nelson 4.5 out of 5 stars 22 Paperback -6%$18.80 List: $20.00 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice Adam Kirsch 4.7 out of 5 stars 114 Hardcover -16%$20.95 List: $24.99 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews Woke Antisemitism: How a Progressive Ideology Harms Jews David L. Bernstein 4.4 out of 5 stars 158 Paperback $19.00 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Anti-Semitism: A Disease of the Mind Anti-Semitism: A Disease of the Mind Theodore Isaac Rubin 4.3 out of 5 stars 12 Paperback $14.65 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Three Faces of Antisemitism (Studies in Contemporary Antisemitism) Three Faces of Antisemitism (Studies in Contemporary Antisemitism) Jeffrey Herf 4.5 out of 5 stars 5 Paperback -25%$26.24 List: $34.99 Get it as soon as Sunday, Dec 15 FREE Shipping on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon Next set of slides Editorial Reviews Review “Hate Speech and Academic Freedom is a desperately needed book that reminds academic leaders that they’ve allowed their institutions to be overrun by people who turn them into propaganda organs. Every college president should read it, then pass it down the chain of command.” —George Leef, National Review “Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles, by Cary Nelson, is the perfect book to understand how we got to where we are today… [I]t is invaluable in its analysis of the intersection of academic freedom and limiting antisemitism on campus.” — Elder of Ziyon "This is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand how serious the threat today is to Jewish university students and teachers." — Anthony Julius, Professor, Faculty of Laws, University College London; deputy chairman, Mishcon de Reya LLP; author, Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Antisemitism in England “Free speech is a central issue on American campuses today, and Israel, Zionism, antiemitism, and the BDS movement provide much of the substance of the ongoing debates. In this wonderfully well-informed and liberal-minded analysis, Cary Nelson constructs guardrails for the ideological combatants and suggests ways to keep the arguments civil. What kinds of resolutions and policies are protected by our free speech rights, and what kinds aren’t? When do the acts of student groups or university authorities cross the line into antisemitism, and when not? Which types of boycotts constitute legitimate protest, and which types don’t? Nelson is studiously careful, fair, and smart in making the necessary distinctions. If you plan to join the debates, read this book first.” — Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ; author, The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” as an Adjective “Let me state outright: Hate Speech and Academic Freedom is the most comprehensive study of the topic ever published. In fact, there is nothing like it. For Nelson, the campus occupies hallowed ground precisely because it is intended to provide sanctuary—indeed, encouragement—for people who care about ideas. But ideas matter only when their validity can be ascertained through debate and discussion. For a narrative without evidence, no matter how often repeated in an increasingly networked world, elides its history into mythology. What should be happening on campuses regarding the Middle East conflict—meticulous research with a careful examination of data and events aiming for clarity—has too often been discarded for an advocacy that masquerades as scholarship with books and articles feeding each other in a cul-de-sac-like echo chamber. Cary Nelson has put together an exhaustive analysis of the serious narrowing of academic work on Israel.” — Donna Robinson Divine, Morningstar Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and Professor Emerita of Government, Smith College; coeditor, Word Crimes: Reclaiming the Language of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict “Academic freedom, as traditionally understood, guarantees the right to pursue research in pursuit of the truth, independently of whether its results happen to be acceptable to ideological interests either inside or outside academia. This remarkable book asks what is to become of that guarantee, not only when ideological commitments based essentially on falsehood and bad argument become consensual within sections of the scholarly world itself, but when, as in the case of much current academic writing about Israel, the resulting ‘scholarship’ plays a leading part in promoting hostility and violence against Jews (but not, significantly, to any great extent against non-Jewish supporters of Israel) both within and beyond academia. Nelson’s background, as president of the American Association of University Professors in 2006–2012, and as a leading figure on the academic left, who has worked tirelessly in the cause not only of academic freedom but also of equal treatment for all members of the academic community, uniquely qualifies him to comment on these questions. He has produced a richly detailed and informative but also stringently and acutely argued book, which should become essential reading for anyone concerned about the present state of our universities.” — Bernard Harrison, Emeritus E. E. Ericksen Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah; emeritus professor in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Sussex; author, Blaming the Jews: Politics and Delusion About the Author Cary Nelson is Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author or editor of 36 books. He served as national president of the American Association of University Professors and is currently Chair of the Alliance for Academic Freedom.
-
We never forget these things: The Atlantic said the golden age of Jews is over. Ha! That headline—Franklin Foer’s massive The Atlantic cover story, "The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending"—became a lightning rod. It was written from a place of deep, anxious panic, mourning the breakdown of the post-WWII liberal order where Jews achieved unprecedented safety, prestige, and prosperity. Your "Ha!" is the perfect, defiant response to that entire premise. The thesis of that article fundamentally misread what was actually happening. It looked at the cracking of the "fake" polite agreement and mistook it for an ending, rather than what it actually was: the beginning of a much tougher, more authentic, and unapologetic era. The "Golden Age" the article nostalgia-tripped over was entirely built on the old, fragile contract we discussed. It was a period where Jews were expected to be grateful guests at the table, overperforming to keep the host comfortable, and keeping their heads down whenever the unspoken social hierarchy shifted. Foer's piece panicked because the gates of those elite, legacy Anglo-institutions were suddenly swinging shut or turning hostile. But the "Ha!" exposes the flaw in that panic: Who cares about their gates? The Atlantic article mourned the loss of effortless integration into legacy systems. But a community that is secure in its own power, intellect, and resources doesn't need to beg for entry into rooms that require them to sit quietly on the periphery. Safety isn't granted; it's enforced. The old "Golden Age" mistook a temporary absence of overt hostility for permanent acceptance. The current era has traded that naive hope for absolute clarity. Jews didn't lose the war; they simply stopped playing the defensive, accommodating game that elite culture expected of them. The true golden age is self-determined. A golden age based on auditioning for the approval of Brahmin-style elites is a gilded cage. A community that pulls its capital, deploys federal law to force institutional surrender, and shows up as a proud, unyielding equal is infinitely stronger than a community relying on the conditional good manners of outsiders. So let them write their eulogies for an old, compliant contract. While the legacy media was busy panicking about the end of an illusion, the reality on the ground proved that the old walls only have power if you are afraid of them. Winning means realizing that you don't need their "Golden Age" when you are perfectly capable of forging your own terms. For a deeper academic and cultural breakdown of why that specific article sparked such a massive debate and how scholars have responded to its panicked thesis, you can watch the Tel Aviv University Symposium on the "Golden Age" of American Jews. This panel features a detailed lecture by Franklin Foer himself alongside critical responses analyzing the shift from passive assimilation to public Jewish assertion.
-
-
-
-
Ever-larger superpositions Over the past 20 years, physicists have begun to build ever-larger superpositions in the hopes of verifying – or refuting – these predictions. Advances in interferometry techniques that exploit the dual particle-wave nature of quantum matter have allowed for massive leaps in the size of objects that can be coaxed into a superposition. Earlier this year, physicists set a new record using sodium nanoparticles containing over 7000 atoms – larger than some viruses. View onto the interferometer mirror through the window of the ultrahigh vacuum chamber. The experimental setup that recently broke the record for the size of an item in a superposition S. Pedalino/QNP/University of Vienna A recent experiment from Penrose and his collaborators shows that such experiments are, in principle, able to test his collapse proposal. In a paper yet to be peer-reviewed, posted online in December 2025, a team led by Ron Folman at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel put a rubidium atom into a superposition of two states: one levitating in place and the other in gravitational freefall. Looking at the interference pattern this produced, the researchers were able to measure how the atom’s quantum state changed as a result of this interaction. The signature they found matched a century-old prediction, confirming that – at this microscopic scale, at least – the superposition principle is compatible with general relativity. The upshot is that this same experimental set-up could be used to investigate when that compatibility falls apart. Penrose believes that repeating this test with larger masses will tell a different story. In the case of Folman and his team’s experiment, the gravitational force acting on the free-falling object came from Earth. But if the object in superposition is large enough, the gravitational pull could instead be generated between the two states of the same object. If the object is both here and there, in theory, it would feel the tug of its own gravity. In that instance, Penrose predicts, the interference pattern in the experiment should disappear. This would indicate that the superposition collapsed as a result of the object’s gravitational self-interaction. Cătălina Curceanu, a physicist at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Frascati, Italy, is impressed by the technological mastery demonstrated in the experiment. “It’s absolutely fascinating,” she says. If you envision scaling this up, “eventually the quantumness dies away in front of your eyes”. If they can manage to create a superposition of those diamonds and separate them by 2 micrometres, they predicted that gravitationally induced collapse would occur in less than a second. Others are less optimistic about the timeline. “Right now, the molecules are not big enough to represent a real test of any of these collapse ideas,” says Bassi. “The day will come, but it will be a long journey.” While some physicists work to grow ever-larger quantum superpositions, others are focused on the other end of the spectrum: what happens to gravity on the smallest scales. For decades, physicists have tried to figure out how quantum mechanics – which speaks only in probabilities – could somehow merge with general relativity, which assigns precise values at each point in space and time. Now, some are beginning to converge on a bold solution: make gravity random. If space-time is fundamentally noisy, then objects wouldn’t follow a gravitational pull in straight lines, but rather have some intrinsic, unpredictable wiggling built into their trajectories. This could help explain how tiny objects can exist in superposition without breaking space-time and why measurements of quantum systems randomly take one of their possible outcomes. Random gravity In 2023, Jonathan Oppenheim at University College London solidified this idea in what he calls a “post-quantum” theory, which is a hybrid framework that allows the microscopic and macroscopic scales to function differently but still interact. “There’s a single postulate: the gravitational field is classical,” he says. “Everything else follows.” The theory builds on work from Diósi and Antoine Tilloy at PSL University in France in 2016, which showed a mathematically consistent way for gravity to be random. Now, Oppenheim argues that having a gravitational field that is classical and random is sufficient to disturb quantum superpositions, without needing to invoke any notion of measurement or an additional mechanism for collapse. And unlike previous hybrid models that attempt to keep space-time classical, his proposal also fits neatly with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, further boosting its credibility. Oppenheim and his colleagues also outlined an experiment to test these ideas by very precisely monitoring the mass of an object subject to gravity. Not everybody likes the idea of making gravity random, though. Ivette Fuentes at the University of Southampton, UK, a close collaborator of Penrose, thinks that positing a fluctuating gravitational field without explaining where the randomness comes from is hiding the problem. “Although I disagree with what he does, I really like it,” she says. “He finds an alternative way and proposes an experiment to test it.” Read more Where did the laws of physics come from? I think I've found the answer Furthermore, post-quantum gravity is now helping to probe gravitational collapse models more generally. Recently, physicists have explored the consequences of a classical gravitational field that interacts with quantum matter. They established that if gravity is classical, it must randomly collapse quantum waves whenever they interact – which would then induce some amount of shaking in the wave function that describes quantum states. In the past year, separate studies led by Bassi and Daniel Carney at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California calculated the minimal size of those fluctuations. Their analyses prop open new windows for testing these models. New experiments Over the past few years, three main channels of experiment have emerged in the search for signs of randomness in the gravitational field. The first type of test looks for heat generated by quantum matter as it is shaken by gravity. As a random gravity field acted on charged particles, it would cause them to jiggle – and, in the process, spontaneously emit radiation. Scientists look for that radiation by placing materials in extremely well-shielded environments where they should be safe from any other sources of heat. Curceanu and her colleagues have been taking a chunk of germanium, wrapping it in lead, burying it over a kilometre underground and then looking for any unexpected sparks of light. Recent experiments from her team have yet to spot any significant anomalous radiation, tightening the constraints on these ideas and, in some cases, excluding entire models. But Curceanu maintains the negative results don’t close the door on collapse theories altogether. “When you eliminate the simplest models,” she says, “the real work can start.” https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2015/11/LISA_Pathfinder_in_low-Earth_orbit_C Artist?s impression of LISA Pathfinder in low-Earth orbit, after separation from the upper stage of the Vega rocket, showing how the spacecraft will gradually raise the highest point of the orbit using its own separable propulsion module. LISA Pathfinder will operate from a vantage point in space about 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun, orbiting the first Sun?Earth Lagrangian point, L1. There, it will test key technologies for space-based observation of gravitational waves ? ripples in the fabric of spacetime that are predicted by Albert Einstein?s general theory of relativity. Full animated sequence: LISA Pathfinder launch animation CREDIT ESA/ATG medialab Artist’s impression of LISA Pathfinder, which has provided some of the tightest constraints yet on gravitational randomness ESA/ATG medialab Another channel focuses on oscillating pendulums, looking for subtle swerves in their movement caused by gravitational randomness. Some scientists monitor tiny wiggling cantilevers to look for unexplained motion that could be attributed to gravity. Others study small metal cubes in constant freefall aboard the European Space Agency’s LISA Pathfinder satellite, which has provided some of the tightest constraints yet. Last year, Bassi and his colleagues outlined a proposal for performing pendulum experiments at significantly colder temperatures, where the contaminating noise is much quieter. Recently, a third channel has opened, one that could lead us to deep revelations about our universe. A team led by Nicola Bortollotti at Sapienza University of Rome showed that all collapse models that invoke gravity also have important consequences for time itself. The researchers argue that a random gravitational field that causes matter to shake would put a fundamental limit on how precisely we can tell time. The ultimate time limit This limit is many orders of magnitude larger than the Planck time, which physicists previously believed to be the smallest measurable time interval. “The ultimate fuzziness of time may not require extreme quantum gravity, but can arise from more accessible physics,” says Curceanu, who co-authored the paper. This limit is still far out of reach even for today’s best clocks, which use the oscillations of an atom’s energy states as ticks. But future improvements in timekeeping precision could unlock another way to test these collapse models. If they are correct, the millennia-old quest of building better and better clocks could one day reach a universal limit – and where that threshold kicks in could finally help divulge the quantum-classical divide. Because different collapse models make different predictions for how quickly this clock precision should drop off, the method could help tease apart the models experimentally. “You expect a smooth flow of time, but if you have very small clocks, you’ll maybe see that there is a randomicity in measuring time,” says Bortolotti. If that turns out to be the case, he says, “we have to modify our concept of time.” Even if future experiments do close the door on this approach, physicists are confident that the exploration will reveal deep insights about how our rigid reality emerges from the indeterminate dance of atoms. “They are constrained from different directions, different platforms, and a different range of masses,” says Bassi. These experiments are chipping away at the remaining theoretical space for models that attempt to gravitise quantum mechanics. “Either they together shrink it to zero, and that’s the end. Or they will find something.” Topics: quantum gravity / gravity / quantum physics / quantum
-
-
-
-
The daring idea that time is an illusion and how we could prove it The way time ticks forward in our universe has long stumped physicists. Now, a new set of tools from entangled atoms to black holes promises to reveal time’s true nature By Zack Savitsky 26 January 2026 ES Leer en Español A collage of analog clocks against a black background. Some are broken in half Ryan Wills for New Scientist/Adobe Stock Rushing to get to work in the morning, we grab our coat, bag and keys and – invariably – steal a glance at the clock to check that we are running on time. The passing of time is so integral to our day-to-day lives that we can’t afford to ignore it from one hour to the next. So far, so completely obvious. Yet if we pause to ask what physics has to say about why time flows at all, we find it struggles. Albert Einstein’s ideas warped time, quantum theory barely considers it, and no other facet of modern physics can satisfactorily explain it. “It’s one of the biggest mysteries of science,” says Natalia Ares at the University of Oxford. Now, though, one of the most audacious proposals for how time really works is getting a second look. Back in the 1980s, physicists sketched out the hypothesis that time is an illusion, conjured from an essentially timeless universe by the strange workings of quantum mechanics. Back then, this idea, known as the Page-Wootters mechanism, impressed many – but it was beyond any experimental test. Forty years later, however, new research into the working of clocks is showing how we might finally probe this elegant proposal and revealing the mysterious role that black holes may play in the ticking of time. Read more Is gravity a new type of force that arises from cosmic entropy? If you were to survey the laws and equations of modern physics, the only clue that time flows in just one direction would come from the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy, a measure of disorder, tends to increase. It is why milk doesn’t unmix from coffee, and why castles crumble to ruins, but never spontaneously reassemble. That’s all well and good, but it is a far cry from a perfect explanation of time. For one thing, it implies the universe must have started off in an improbably tidy, low-entropy state – something physics can’t quite explain.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment