How politicized studies enforce conformity: Interviews with Lulius Lester and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Editor's Note: At Emory University, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese built a women's studies program notable for its ideological openness and high standards. In February 1992, Prof. Fox-Genovese resigned as chair of that program, in response to irresistible pressures for a more ideologically defined program. This reminded us of the earlier case of Julius Lester, who left Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1988 under pressure after he accused certain black leaders of antisemitism. In the following interviews we asked Professors Lester and Fox-Genovese for their assessment of those events.