On Mon, 22 Dec 2003, Irina Shklovski wrote:
general. I do not think as a field, we have a choice of whether our field is funded, at least in part, with military money. We have that choice only as individual researchers, when we choose which grants to apply for and accept.
i agree that we have a choice as individual researchers, but i strongly disagree that we don't have a choice on larger levels. i think we can make our ideas known in, say, faculty and graduate meetings and in university-level committees. i also wonder what the role of air is. if air exists, in part, to give collective voice to internet researchers, then this is something that might want to be addressed, discussed, debated, etc. in the very least, it should be something that is made visible. just because militarization has always been a part of academia, esp US academia, doesn't mean we have to continue along this path. if we diverge, there will be of course certain losses (like $45 million grants from the US army) but those losses come with certain gains too. david