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            Peter N. Kirstein                                  Professor of History                         St Xavier University - Chicago

Vice President A.A.U.P. Illinois
Chair Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure
         Résumé       

SXU  Teaching Excellence Award
SXU Scholarship Excellence Award
Kirstein Blog

YouTube: Interview on Iran Television

Kirstein Quoted in InsideHigherEd
on Ward Churchill tenure revocation.

Kirstein interviewed by Shawn Allee on Chicago Public Radio on Dr Finkelstein
DePaul Tenure Case.
Kirstein Quoted in InsideHigherEd on Norman Finkelstein, Mehrene Larudee DePaul Tenure Cases.

F.I.R.E. Reproduces Kirstein op-ed on Iraq War Crime and Sanctions for Antiwar E-mail

JANE FONDA: IN HANOI SAVE THE CHILDREN PEACE MISSION


New York Times
Kirstein on Abu Ghraib

Kirstein: "Challenges to Academic Freedom since 9/11",  Matthew Morgan, ed.,  Impact of 9/11 and the New Legal Landscape,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who destroyed Norman Finkelstein's tenure bid, is also a contributor.

Kirstein: "Hiroshima and Spinning the Atom: The US, Britain and Canada Proclaim the Nuclear Age, August 6, 1945," The Historian, Winter 2009, 805-27.

<> Kirstein: essays on  "Academic Freedom" and "J. Robert Oppenheimer," Roger Chapman, ed., Encyclopedia of  the Culture Wars, Vols 1 and 2, M.E. Sharpe, 2010

Prof. Kirstein and Rev. Jesse Jackson on Emmett Till terrorist killing

Archive:
AAUP Chapter Defends Academic Freedom

FIRE on Kirstein Case

Iraq War K.I.A.
4374

Afghan War K.I.A.
983



Wounded Soldier: Iraq New England Journal of Medicine
U.S.S. Liberty: Remember the Murdered



Two Inspirational Professors:
Howard Zinn, Boston University
Patrick T. Dougherty, Saint Louis University


 Select Online Publications:
"Congress v. President During Iraq and Vietnam," History News Network, March 5, 2007.
"Teaching the Iraq War," Academe, September-October, 2006.
"Iraq: The Logic of Withrawal," History News Network, April 3, 2006.
"Shared Governance and Academic Freedom," Illinois Academe, Fall 2005.
"Why Iraq, Like Vietnam, Is Immoral and Unnecessary," History News Network, March 7, 2005.
"Should Historians Speak at David Irving Conference," History News Network , September 20, 2004.
"Academic Freedom and the New McCarthyism,"Situation Analysis, Spring , 2004, 21-35.
"How I Define Patriotism," HNN, October 20, 2003.
"Terrorism from the Sky: The Destruction of Nagasaki," New Ground, July-August, 2003, 12-15.
"American Swagger in a Dangerous Nuclear World," HNN, January, 2003.
"False Dissenters: Manhattan Project Scientists and the Use of the Atomic Bomb," American Diplomacy, 2001
Kirstein's Teaching Philosophy and Raison D'être in being a professor. {updated 2009}
I believe teaching is a moral act. I do not construe the purpose of teaching as merely transmitting information with the purpose of ratifying the current order. Students need to appreciate not only the strengths but also the failures of the past in order to better comprehend the challenges that lie ahead. I would like students to be change agents, to be committed to a better world and I have no doubt that this objective of my teaching is moral and just. Racism, sexism, militarism, homophobia, unregulated capital formation and aggressive nationalism are examples of persistent historical phenomena that must be assessed and used to build a course of study that is progressive, caring and just.

On pedagogy per se: Different views and competing visions should be introduced when appropriate. Not every theme or action, however, requires "balance" in the classroom. Professors should not hesitate to voice and express opinions but should be careful to insure that student voices are heard and validated. Professors should not indoctrinate or proselytise their students. Conversely, self-censorship by professors should be minimal and academic freedom should be well-established on a campus to allow and even encourage challenging pedagogy even if controversial. The search for the truth should have few restrictions in an academic setting..

For education to be meaningful, it should move beyond preparation for a "job." Yes that is important and students have a right to expect their education will provide them with the requisite skills to pursue and develop their occupational pursuits. Yet there are other higher purposes to education that I have and will continue to expostulate. I want my students to recognise and encounter in their studies the racism in America, the violence that it has perpetrated, the persecution of homosexuals that remains an issue of concern, the lack of gender equity and the arrogant notion of American exceptionalism. Students who can think outside the realm of narrow nationalism will be equpped to encounter globalisation and international issues. Other societies have weaknesses too and those should be examined as well.

Professors should be immune from external or internal pressure to conform. There have been numerous occasions where I have been urged to to revise my teaching pedagogy and to adopt a less-progressive ethical vision. I have been named as one of David Horowitz, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America which I find curious as a military veteran, the son of an Army Captain and opponent of violence. Professors must have academic freedom or their students cannot learn as effectively. A professor who is proccupied with being fired, suspended, denied tenure, or LOSING tenure will engage in self-censorship. Students will be denied their right to be educated by professors who are not hesitant to teach honestly and openly their discipline without fear of retribution. I have and will dedicate my energies to ensure that academic freedom is indeed respected and protected on both my campus and to the extent possible, elsewhere.
E-mail  kirstein@sxu.edu                                          January 27, 2010