Normale Sup’ : le gratin de la recherche mondiale “consterné” par Monique Canto-Sperber

Après les universitaires français, qui s’étaient indignés de l’annulation de la conférence de Stéphane Hessel, ce sont les universitaires anglo-saxons qui critiquent vertement la politique de Monique Canto-Sperber . Lancée par Judith Butler, professeure de rhétorique à Berkeley, Michael Harris, professeur de mathématiques à Paris-Diderot, Natalie Zemon Davies, historienne à Toronto et Joan Wallach Scott, historienne à Princeton, cette pétition réunit du très beau monde. De l’incontournable Noam Chomsky, qui est de tous les combats, à l’historien israélien Avi Schlaim en passant par Paola Bacchetta, spécialiste des “gender studies” à Berkeley ou Rashid Khalidi, historien à Columbia.

Dans ce texte, ces chercheurs condamnent non seulement l’interdiction de la conférence de Stéphane Hessel, mais aussi le refus d’organiser au sein de l’école des réunions publiques sur Israël à l’initiative du Collectif ENS Palestine.“Nous ne sommes pas convaincus, expliquent les pétitionnaires, par le raisonnement de la directrice et du Conseil d’Etat, que ces réunions constituaient une menace à l’ordre public ou qu’elles empêchaient l’ENS de garantir la liberté d’expression et le droit de se réunir à ses étudiants”.

Philippe Jacqué

http://lemonde-educ.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/03/22/normale-sup-le-gratin-de-la-recherche-mondiale-consterne-par-monique-canto-sperber/

Le texte de la pétition (en anglais) :

A PETITION TO MONIQUE CANTO-SPERBER, DIRECTOR,
ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE, PARIS

We, the undersigned U.S., Canadian and British academics, many of us with long connections to France, and who have long admired the historic role of the École Normale supérieure in the critical and intellectual life of the country, are dismayed at recent events at the school. The actions of the Director, Monique Canto-Sperber, first banning a talk by Stéphane Hessel and then refusing to allow the Colléctif Palestine ENS to hold a meeting on campus, is a denial of the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Hessel is 93, a former ENS student, member of the Resistance, survivor of Buchenwald, one of the authors of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and of the recent best-selling Indignezvous!/Time for Outrage, in which he (among other things) criticizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

We are not persuaded by the reasoning of the Director or of the Conseil d’État, that these meetings constitute a threat to public order or that they exceed the responsibility of the ENS to guarantee all students’ rights to speech and assembly.

The action of the Director is an exception to the school’s customary toleration of political action by students and it is a recurring exception, aimed at silencing one side in a needed debate about the Israel/Palestine conflict. We believe that the Director’s action contravenes a long history of free speech and political expression at the ENS as described in its own publicity : “For decades, the ENS has been the most prestigious site of French intellectual and scientific life. It participated in all the great intellectual debates of modern France, from the Dreyfus Affair to the movements of the 1930’s, and from the foundation of the human sciences to the avant-garde movements of the 1970’s.”

We call upon the Director to reverse her decision and to restore academic freedom, a practice long associated with this distinguished institution.

Les pétitionnaires :

Judith Butler, Professor of Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley
Michael Harris, Professor of Mathematics, Université Paris-Diderot
Natalie Zemon Davis, Professor of History, University of Toronto
Joan Wallach Scott, Professor, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Yve-Alain Bois, Professor, School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study
Edmund Burke III, Professor of History, University of California at Santa Cruz
Noam Chomsky, Professor (retired), MIT
Edwin E. Daniel, F. R.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Health Sciences, McMaster University and
University of Alberta
Laurence Dreyfus, Professor of Music, Magdalen College, Oxford
Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus, School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced
Study
Morris Halle, Institute Professor, MIT
Malcolm Levitt, FRS, Professor of Chemistry, University of Southampton
David Mumford, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Brown and Harvard Universities
Jacqueline Rose, Professor of English, Queen Mary University of London
Graeme Segal, FRS, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, All Souls College, Oxford
Ben-Z. Shek, F.R.S.C., Professor Emeritus of French, University of Toronto
Avi Shlaim, Professor of International Relations, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford
Richard Taylor, Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University
James L. Turk, Executive Director, Canadian Association of University Teachers
Marina Warner, Professor of Literature, University of Essex
Andrew Aisenberg, Associate Professor of History, Scripps College
Gil Anidjar, Associate Professor of Religion, Columbia University
Robert Boyce, Senior Lecturer in International History, London School of Economics and
Political Science
Wendy Brown, Professor of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley
Edouard Bustin, Director, Groupe de Recherches sur l’Afrique Francophone, Boston
University
Terence Cave, Emeritus Professor of French Literature, Oxford
Jonathan Dewald, Distinguished Professor of History, University at Buffalo, The State
University of New York
Peter Fitting, Professor emeritus, French and Cinema Studies, University of Toronto
Carla Freccero, Professor of Literature, Director, Center for Cultural Studies, University of
California at Santa Cruz
Irene Gendzier, Professor, Dept of Political Science, Boston University
Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature, Duke University
David Heap, Associate Professor of French and Linguistics, University of Western Ontario
Ann Jefferson, Professor of French, Oxford
Katherine Callen King, Professor, Comparative Literature and Classics, University of
California at Los Angeles
Martin Klein, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Toronto
Conrad Leyser, Fellow and Tutor in History, Worcester College, Oxford
Brian Massumi, Professor of Communication, Université de Montréal
Peter Sahlins, Professor of History, Executive Director of the France-Berkeley Fund,
University of California at Berkeley
Kate Tunstall, University Lecturer (CUF) in French, Worcester College, Oxford
Wes Williams, University Lecturer, Fellow and Tutor in French, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford
Rabab Abdulhadi, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies, College of Ethnic Studies, San
Francisco State University
Mary Louise Adams, Associate Professor, Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s
University, Kingston
Sylvat Aziz, Professor of Fine Arts, Queen’s University, Kingston
Feyzi Baban, Associate Professor, Political Studies Department, Trent University
Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of
California at Berkeley
Ian Barnard, Associate Professor of English, Affiliated Faculty, Queer Studies, California
State University at Northridge
Amy Bartholomew, Associate Professor of Law, Carleton University
Micheline Beaudry, Professeure retraitée (nutrition publique), Université Laval
Roger Beck, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto
Dr G. K. Bhambra, Director of the Social Theory Centre, University of Warwick
Mario Biagoli, Professor of Law & Science and Technology Studies, University of California
at Davis
Hagit Borer, Professor of Linguistics, University of Southern California
Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and Chair, Department of Feminist Studies, University of
California at Santa Barbara
Martha Bragin, Associate Professor of Social Work, Hunter College
Haim Bresheeth, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, University of East London
Stephen Eric Bronner, Distinguished Professor (PII) of Political Science, Rutgers University
Anne Clement, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University
Lynne Cohen, Former Professor of Photography, University of Ottawa
Rebecca Comay, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto
Rebecca Coulter, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario
Stephen D’Arcy, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Huron University College
Miriam David, Professor Emerita of Education, Institute of Education, University of London
Howard Davidson, Interim Director, Aboriginal Focus Programs, University of Manitoba
Chandler Davis, Professor of Mathematics, University of Toronto
Mary Ellen Davis, Part time faculty, School of Cinema, Concordia University
Geneviève A. Dumas, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering,
Queen’s University, Kingston
Peter Eglin, Professor of Sociology, Wilfred Laurier University
Christo El Morr, Adjunct Professor of Information Technology, York University
Nada Elia, Professor of Global Studies, Antioch University, Seattle
Randa Farah, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario
Gordon Fellman, Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University
L. M. Findlay, Professor of English, University of Saskatchewan
Norman Finkelstein, Independent Scholar
Gavin Fridell, Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Politics, Trent University
Mark Gabbert, Associate Professor of History, University of Manitoba
Jack Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick
Marvin E. Gettleman, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
Harry Glasbeek, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Osgoode Hall Law School, York
University
Sherna Berger Gluck, Professor Emerita of History, California State University at Long
Beach
Mark Golden, Professor of Classics, University of Winnipeg
Bluma Goldstein, Professor Emerita of German, University of California at Berkeley
Peter Gose, Chair of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University
Allan Greer, Canada Research Chair in Colonial North America, Department of History,
McGill University
Julie Guard, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Labour Studies Program, University of
Manitoba
Nadia Habib, Department of Humanities, York University
Christian Haesemeyer, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of California at Los
Angeles
Lisa Hajjar, Associate Professor of Sociology, Chair, Law and Society Program, University
of California at Santa Barbara
Sondra Hale, Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies, University of California
at Los Angeles
Robert M. Hamm, Professor, Dept. of Family and Preventive Medicine, Director, Clinical
Decision Making Program, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
Paul Handford, Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of Western Ontario
Jens Hanssen, Associate Professor of History, University of Toronto
Gillian Hart, Professor of Geography, University of California at Berkeley
Amir Hassanpour, Associate Professor, Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations (ret.),
University of Toronto
Sudhir Hazareesingh, Fellow in Politics, Balliol College, Oxford
Henry Heller, Professor of History, University of Manitoba
Sami Hermez, Visiting Fellow, Centre for Lebanese Studies, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University
Viqar Husain, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick
Radha Jhappan, Professor of Political Science, Carleton University
Suad Joseph, Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies, University of
California at Davis
Louis Kampf, Professor Emeritus of English, MIT
Ilan Kapoor, Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
Michael Keefer, Professor of English Literature, School of English and Theatre Studies,
University of Guelph
Assaf Kfoury, Professor of Computer Science, Boston University
Rashid Khalidi, Professor of History, Columbia University
Muhammed Ali Khalidi, Associate Professor of Philosophy, York University
David Klein, Professor of Mathematics, California State University at Northridge
Ann Hibner Koblitz, Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State University
Neal Koblitz, Professor of Mathematics, University of Washington
Dennis Kortheuer, Department of History, California State University at Long Beach
Clarice Kuhling, Lecturer, Department of Sociology & Department of Contemporary Studies,
Wilfred Laurier University
Ailsa Land, Emeritus Professor of Operational Research, London School of Economics
Robert V. Lange, Professor Emeritus of Physics, Brandeis University
Paul Lauter, Allan K. and Gwendolyn Miles Smith Professor of Literature, Trinity College
Winnie Lem, International Development Studies, Trent University
Margaret Little, Professor of Gender Studies and Political Studies, Queen’s University,
Kingston
David Lloyd, Professor of English, University of Southern California
Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film and Cultural Studies, University of East London
Andrew Lugg, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Ottawa
Rashmi Luther, Lecturer, School of Social Work, Carleton University
Arthur MacEwan, Professor Emeritus of Economics and Senior Fellow, Center for Social
Policy, University of Massachusetts Boston
Moshe Machover, Professor Emeritus of philosophy, King’s College, London
David McNally, Professor of Political Science, York University
Dr. John McTague, English Faculty, Oxford
William Messing, Professor of Mathematics, University of Minnesota
Haynes Miller, Professor of Mathematics, MIT
Kevin Moloney, Faculty, Dept of Languages, Linguistics & Literatures, York University
Karen Bridget Murray, Associate Professor of Political Science, York University
Karma Nabulsi, Fellow in Politics, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Joanne Naiman, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Ryerson University, Toronto
Maire Noonan, Assistant Professor of Linguistics, McGill University
Richard Ohmann, Benjamin Waite Professor of English, Emeritus, Wesleyan University
Patricia Palulis, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa
Charles Posner, Institute of Education, University of London
Garry Potter, Associate Professor of Sociology, Wilfred Laurier University
Trevor Purvis, Assistant Profesor of Law and Political Economy, Carleton University
Aneil Rallin, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, Soka University of
America
Denis G. Rancourt, Former Professor of Physics, University of Ottawa
Rush Rehm, Professor of Drama and Classics, Stanford University
Steven Rose, Emeritus Professor of Biology, The Open University
Jonathan Rosenhead, Emeritus Professor of Operational Research, London School of
Economics
Marty Roth, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Minnesota
E. Natalie Rothman, Assistant Professor of History, University of Toronto
Leila Rupp, Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara
Claire Schub, Lecturer in French, Tufts University
Alan Sears, Professor of Sociology, Ryerson University, Toronto
Eric Smoodin, Professor of American Studies and Film Studies, University of California at
Davis
Metta Spencer, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Toronto
Brian Stock, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
Bernard Sufrin, Fellow Emeritus in Computation, Worcester College, Oxford
Abdel Razzaq Takriti, Junior Research Fellow in Political History, St. Edmund Hall, Oxford
Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Director of the Law and Religion Program, University at Buffalo,
The State University of New York
Oliver Taplin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, Oxford
Vladimir Tasic, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick
Barrie Thorne, Professor of Sociology, and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of
California at Berkeley
Eric Urban, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University
Richard A. Walker, Professor of Geography, Co-director, Global Metropolitan Studies,
University of California at Berkeley
Seth Wigderson, Professor of History, University of Maine, Augusta
Howard Winant, Professor of Sociology, Director, UC Center for New Racial Studies,
University of California at Santa Barbara