Some academics try to push back: Ward Churchill, the war on truth, and the improbabilities of interruption

Abstract

In this essay, the author outlines the limits of critical inquiry in the wake of 9/11 through a close reading of public reaction to Ward Churchill and his essay ĝ€'Some People Push Back.ĝ€ Following an overview of the public panic and its fallout, the author details the forces and feelings that have converged to contain academic freedom and public intellectuals. Against this background, the author unpacks the key terms and tactics employed to delegitimize Churchill, highlighting the important intersection of the moral rhetoric of the cultural wars with the colonial discourse of the war on terror around the notion of civilization and those hostile to it. © 2009 Sage Publications.