Further on the Frontiers/Brill censoring:
One of the more pernicious aspects of this particular episode — which, as Kirk points out and as I know, is far from the only one at Frontiers — is how the censorship is given ex post facto intellectual sanction by the editor(s) of the journal. If reasons of market are used by publishers to militate against challenging the Chinese State, and if hastily designed intellectual arguments from respected scholars located in North American institutions also are used to do so, the problem is far more advanced than a few unfortunate exposures of greedy business practices.
We all operate in zones of intellectual judgement, as well as in various degrees of fraught and challenging political environments; nothing is simple. Yet, if we cannot be honest about what we’re doing, then the ghost is up for sure. One would hope that the scholarly community at large would not stand by for a surrender to deception.
Rebecca Karl, Professor
NYU History
rek2@nyu.edu