The Chronicle Hosts Debate on Visa Difficulties for Scholars
Following an increase in the numbers of scholars who are denied entry to the US when attempting to visit the country for academic purposes, The Chronicle yesterday hosted an online discussion on the issue (read transcript of discussion in full here).
The two interviewees were Barbara Weinstein, Professor of history at New York University and President of the American Historical Association, and Melissa Goodman, staff attorney in the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.
Weinstein and Goodman explained that the most common methods of denying scholars US entry are delaying to act on Visa applications and not providing any explanation when the applications are eventually turned down. They also informed that scholars have on occasion been stopped at the border despite possessing valid visas. This was the case for both Yoannis Milios and Adam Habib, two recent incidents mentioned by the interviewees. A timeline documenting all high-profile cases is available here.
The participants were mostly people in academic positions, and the discussion largely focused on how to best act in these situations in the future. Hosting events outside the US to avoid the problem entirely was presented as one option. However, while both Weinstein and Goodman agreed that this might work as an immediate solution in some cases, they also called for more proactive suggestions on how to approach the issue in general.
On the whole, they were supported by the participants of the debate in this. So far, each incident has been dealt with by the parties involved on a ‘case by case’ basis, and there was a general consensus that since the problem now appears to be of a certain scope, a broad-spanning strategy is needed.
The most specific idea on this front came from Amy Hagopian (University of Washington), who suggested that a national university association should be formed to tackle the problem.
Read more here
Following an increase in the numbers of scholars who are denied entry to the US when attempting to visit the country for academic purposes, The Chronicle yesterday hosted an online discussion on the issue (read transcript of discussion in full here).
The two interviewees were Barbara Weinstein, Professor of history at New York University and President of the American Historical Association, and Melissa Goodman, staff attorney in the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.
Weinstein and Goodman explained that the most common methods of denying scholars US entry are delaying to act on Visa applications and not providing any explanation when the applications are eventually turned down. They also informed that scholars have on occasion been stopped at the border despite possessing valid visas. This was the case for both Yoannis Milios and Adam Habib, two recent incidents mentioned by the interviewees. A timeline documenting all high-profile cases is available here.
The participants were mostly people in academic positions, and the discussion largely focused on how to best act in these situations in the future. Hosting events outside the US to avoid the problem entirely was presented as one option. However, while both Weinstein and Goodman agreed that this might work as an immediate solution in some cases, they also called for more proactive suggestions on how to approach the issue in general.
On the whole, they were supported by the participants of the debate in this. So far, each incident has been dealt with by the parties involved on a ‘case by case’ basis, and there was a general consensus that since the problem now appears to be of a certain scope, a broad-spanning strategy is needed.
The most specific idea on this front came from Amy Hagopian (University of Washington), who suggested that a national university association should be formed to tackle the problem.
Read more here
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