THE LATEST ON THE BARNARD TENURE CONTROVERSY over the work of Nadia Abu El-Haj comes from the Associated Press:

Controversy Over New York Prof's Tenure
By DEEPTI HAJELA 09.12.07, 3:37 AM ET

NEW YORK -

A debate over an anthropologist's book on ancient Hebrew history isn't just academic - it's spilled over into online a dispute between critics trying to keep her from getting tenure and supporters who say the effort stifles scholarly freedom.

Nadia Abu El-Haj, has been teaching at Columbia Univerity's Barnard College since 2002. Her book, "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society," looks at the importance of archaeology in forming Israel's national identity.

The 2001 book discusses how archaeological discoveries have been used to defend the country's territorial claims and contributed to the idea of Israel as the ancient home of the Jewish people.

The professor, who is of Palestinian descent, argues that Israel has used archaeology to justify its existence in the region, sometimes at the expense of other nationalities like the Palestinians.

[...]

Barnard religion professor Alan Segal said he is against granting tenure to Abu El-Haj based on her work, which he said he has read. He called the public petitions for and against her tenure "silly" but added that they were unlikely to have any effect on the tenure decision.

"I don't believe it's affected the process in any way," he said, adding that the Barnard faculty, by and large, supports Abu El-Haj.

[...]

UPDATE (16 September): More here.