How to teach about the war at America’s ‘leading public university’

The fall semester has started. The war on terror is reportedly about to extend to Iraq. Both those events mean that “teach-ins” are about to return to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose chancellor recently spoke of his vision of UNC-CH as “America’s leading public university,” a “university with a moral compass.”


Sept. 11 figures in campus discussions on health, discrimination, and racism

The terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent U.S. war on terrorism were the subjects of a recent teach-in at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and were also referenced by North Carolina State University students during two recent campus events focusing on an entirely different subject, the racial climate.



Feminist teach-in links “fundamentalism” in the Middle East to (natch) the U.S.

“Women Fight Fundamentalisms: Before and After September 11th” was the topic of a two-day “teach-in” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. Discussion was not, however, limited to the fight against that “fundamentalist” version of Islam. As the title clearly indicates, the topic was women fighting “fundamentalisms” (plural). And one speaker discussed similarities between President George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden.



Combined teach-in will focus on the fight against fundamentalism

“Women Fight Fundamentalisms: Before and After September 11th” will be the topic of a two-day “teach-in” at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. The teach-in will build upon the national consensus forged on Sept. 11 against the extremist, militant interpretation of Islam wielded by the terrorist al-Qu’eda organization, Osama bin Laden and Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban. That aberration of Islam is particularly vicious in its treatment of women. The topic of the teach-in is not, however, limited to the fight against that “fundamentalist” version of Islam by women. As the title clearly indicates, the topic is women fighting “fundamentalisms” (plural).



A week after the attacks, speakers at UNC-Chapel Hill

There were plenty of comparisons made to Nazis and other totalitarian regimes at the University of North Carolina’s “teach-in” held in response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but the focus of the comparisons wasn’t Osama bin Laden or terrorists in general, but the United States of America.