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6 years ago, Congressional Republicans & @GOP tried to drag my research, and my name, through the mud. I've never told this story, but now it's time. I also made a video about it, which you can check out here: THREAD /1
A bit of background: I wrote a book called the Chinese Typewriter, which came out @mitpress a few years back. A history of Chinese information technology from the 1930s to the 1950s. A sequel to the book, all about Chinese computing, is coming @mitpress as well. /2
When I was still an untenured Assistant Professor @Stanford I was feverishly applying for sabbatical grants (I'm sure many readers know the feeling). One of the grants I applied for was the @NSF grant for humanists and social scientists /3
I worked my ass off for the grant. Beyond the grant itself, which involved as much work as 2 peer-reviewed articles, it took me 2 revise-and-resubmits to land it. 3rd try! /4
I was ecstatic. Then, out of the blue, I received an email from someone @Stanford I had never heard of. A lawyer. (Video here: ) /5
The Stanford lawyer said: Don't get nervous, but make sure you're sitting down. You're part of a dragnet led by congressional @GOP - Each year they try to stir up controversy over "wasted taxpayer money" /6
The scholars the @GOP tend to target focus = #ClimateChange and #GlobalWarming ... for obvious reasons. #BigOil lobbyists, anti-science bent of GOP /7
Lo and Behold, this lowly Assistant Professor working on the history of Chinese #informationtechnology was part of the attack. (Dadgummit, taxpayer money shouldn't go towards understanding the world in which we live!) /8
This email truly freaked me out. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know if my name was going to be strewn across @foxnewsalert the next day. /9
Here are 3 things I learned + want to share with anyone reading who might face something similar. It's rare, but it happens. (Video here: ) /10
p.s. I was targeted by @GOP but I know colleagues who have been targeted by Hindu nationalists, Japanese militarists, ... because of the subject matter they're working on /11
1st Q: What to do if you're targeted politically for your scholarship? In my case, I was fortunate to find out about this by way of an office on campus. But what would I have done had I learned about this dragnet on the news or by receiving messages from journalists?/12
I might have panicked. I certainly wouldn't have thought to myself "I should reach out to university general counsel." Frankly I didn't even know that such an office existed. /13
Well, now I do, and I want to say: if this happens to you, do NOT immediately respond to media inquiries. (Video here: ) /14
The very first step you want to take is to reach out to the Chair of your department, or your advisor, if you're a student. Maybe also your Dean, and the Office of the General Counsel. /16
You're going to (or should!) get a rapid response, because this is an exceptional situation + they don't want to see you hurt. Neither do they want to see their university or college dragged through the mud (so there is self-interest on their part as well) /17
2nd Q: What to do w/ the inevitable contact by journalists? (I was contacted by multiple journalists within days) /18
Again, had I not had a conversation w/ someone at my university, I may have just started jumping in & talking. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is risky. I wouldn't have thought out in advance: What do I want to do about this? Am I in a position to fight this? /19
Remember, I was pre-tenure at this point. Always anxious about what the tenure process was going to be like, what influenced it, how I might blow it. /20
Am I prepared emotionally? Do I have the time to respond in a substantive way? Or do I want to place the responsibility with senior colleagues? There is no right and wrong in this decision. But you do need to be deliberate. /21
If you just jump on Twitter or Facebook, or start responding to journalists, you are announcing to the world: "Bring it on. I'm in." And this has real consequences. Time spent teaching, advising, researching suffers. It does things to you, emotionally and psychologically. /22
Always remember: You're not a weak person if you decide not to fight this fight. You're not a bad person if you don't stand up for this. Remember: this is not your fault. This is someone else's pathetic game. So think through if & how you want to respond to this / 23
Point #3 brings us back to the specific case of @GOP attacks: Remember that this is *never* about "fiscal conservativism." This is ideological. They use terms like "oversight," which might sound reasonable at first, but they're lying. That's not the real goal /24
Coming back to my "dangerous" book for a sec, there is a wonderful twist to the story. As my friends + colleagues know, the book won the top prize in my field: the John K. Fairbank prize, awarded by @AHAhistorians / 25
In honor of @GOP I'll be donating copies of the book 2 public libraries. Please be in 1st 10 to leave a comment on my Youtube video, name a library, and I'll send it, gratis. This is for you @TexansforLamar. I don't know what you had against me but 🤗
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