Cary Nelson (born 1946), is an American professor emeritus of English and Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was president of the

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States that was founded in 1915 in New York City and is currently headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAUP membership inc ...

between 2006 and 2012.

Education

In 1967, Nelson graduated from

Antioch College Antioch College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection and began operating in 1852 as a non-secta ...

. In 1970, he received a Ph.D. in English from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

. His scholarship of the 1970s and 1980s worked to expand the canon of modern American poetry.

Career

Since the 1990s he has increasingly focused on issues in higher education. In the words of Alan Wald, "With the appearance of ''Manifesto of a Tenured Radical'' in 1997. Nelson became an example of the committed scholar who conceived of the advance of his own career in the context of the amelioration of the rank-and-file of the academic community; more specifically, graduate students, part-time employees, and campus workers." From 2000 to 2006 Nelson was the second vice president of the

(AAUP). He was elected to a two-year term as president and was re-elected until 2012. In April 2006, Nelson was arrested, along with over 50 others, including Jane Buck, the outgoing president of the AAUP, as part of a unionization effort by

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's graduate teaching assistants. In 2014, Nelson supported the University of Illinois' decision to withdrawn a job offer to Steven Salaita, an "

American studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, History of the United States, history, Society of the United States, society, and Culture of the Unit ...

scholar active in the Israel boycott movement."

Published works

He has published or edited twenty five books, including ''Manifesto of a Tenured Radical'' and ''Revolutionary Memory: Recovering the Poetry of the American Left.'' His academic focus is on modern American poetry. He has also published books criticizing boycotts of Israel, including the BDS movement.

Bibliography

* ''No University Is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom''. New York University Press, 2010. * ''The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel'' (edited, with Gabriel Noah Brahm). Wayne State Press, 2015. * ''Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State''. Indiana University Press, 2019. * ''Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles''. Academic Studies Press, 2024.

Notes

External links

Cary Nelson's Home Page
*
Perry Anderson's House of Zion: A Symposium - Fathom Journal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Cary 1946 births Living people Antioch College alumni University of Rochester alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Presidents of the American Association of University Professors