What Can We Do to Support Shalom Lappin?

I’m back, valued readers; sorry for the pause. Was travelling.

Just a very brief post still this evening, to link to a very important one here regarding an academic at King’s College who has been treated very shabbily. In a nutshell, Shalom Lappin was offered a chair with tenure at Hebrew University. After conferring with his institutional superiors at King’s and receiving assurance that his position there was secure, and preferring to remain in London, he turned down the offer from Jerusalem. Little more than half a year later, he was informed that his academic position was being eliminated and he himself being made redundant. He writes:

I now find myself threatened with redundancy six years before scheduled retirement, with totally inadequate pension provisions, while at the height of my research career. This is grossly unfair, and violates statements often made by the Principal and other members of the administration to the effect that excellence in research is King’s priority. This threat is also a serious miscarriage of justice, given my level of productivity, and the fact that I was allowed to give up a very attractive offer on the basis of assurances that have turned out to be without foundation.

Normblog announces that a campaign is under way within the philosophy profession and among King’s students to obtain redress for Shalom Lappin and others. I hope that that campaign can be broadened (or a parallel one launched) to include others who may wish to support, in particular, Shalom, whose writing at Normblog and Engage will be known to many who may not be familiar with his scholarly output.