The faculty of Yale's anthropology department has inexplicably denied David Graeber, a radical anthropologist and old ITT contributor, a renewal of his contract. Their decision is baffling from an academic and scholarly standpoint, and, though the decision process itself is shrouded in secrecy, it appears to be related to Graeber's defense of a grad student who was attempting to unionize her fellow students.
You can read Graeber's take on the situation here.
And a more "objective" take here.
After that, if you feel inclined, you can sign a petition in support of him here.
You could also pick up his book, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, published by the pugnacious and practically perfect Prickly Paradigm Press. (Their latest, by the way, is Tom Geoghegan's The Law in Shambles, another must read.)
Brian Cook was an editor at In These Times from 2003 to 2009. He now works on the editorial staff of Playboy magazine.
