What ever happened to Steven Salaita, the former professor whose profanity-laden, hateful tweets about Israel and shoddy scholarship led to his academic downfall? It turns out he’s now a school bus driver in Washington D.C.
While one may be tempted to gloat at his misfortune, Salaita makes a surprisingly well-written case for the “profoundly liberating” act of “leaving academe” for “an honest living.” Meanwhile, he condemns the academy, describing its “loftiest mission” as “a fierce compulsion to eliminate any impediment to donations.”
Salaita may not have abandoned his anti-Semitic views on Israel (or his juvenile take on capitalism), but he appears to have learned a thing or two about blue-collar work, ambition, and reinvention.
