Flint - UM-Flint's 2008-2009 Winegarden Professorship appointment has gone to Pakistani born Tariq Ali, who is a controversial novelist, journalist, historian and political campaigner.
Ali has a very different view on a lot of things, which is evident by his involvement, for instance, in many different fields as a writer.
Ali is very prolific and has written over a dozen books on world history and politics, five novels, and scripts for both stage and screen.
"We're very lucky to have him," said Associate Professor of Anthropology Ananth Aiyer who nominated Ali for the Winegarden professorship, "I don't think people realize just how lucky we are."
Aiyer nominated Ali because he was aware of his international fame but also because he would be the first appointment of someone who wasn't known first in America.
Ali will be here for three weeks in March and will be giving two lectures on campus and a public lecture at the Flint Public Library.
Associate Professor of English Mary-Jo Kietzman is designing an English class that will be billed both as an undergraduate and graduate class for the winter semester. The class will be a focused reading group of Ali's literature. The Winegarden professor will also be guest lecturing for that class.
"I volunteered to design and teach this class," Kietzman said. "I wanted to put Ali's body of work in front of the students, and give them a way into the conversation."
A faculty teaching circle has formed that is reading his work. The circle has eight faculty members, including anthropology professor Judy Rosenthal, Marian E. Wright Writing Center coordinator Scott Russell, associate professor of economics Adam Lutzker, assistant professor of political science Jason Kosnoski, philosophy lecturer Tristan Hassell, political science lecturer Derwin Monroe, Aiyer and Kietzman.
"We need different viewpoints informing the writing program," Russell said. "One of the interesting things about the way we define writers in America is that in our culture we have a poet, an essayist, a journalist, we tend to specialize here. Ali though, he's spread all over the place; history, commentary, fiction, his idea of being a writer is a very different thing."
Ali's newest book, "The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power," takes a new a look at Pakistan and its burdened relationship with the United States.
Pakistan is currently in the middle of a crisis with daily battles on the Afghan border. According to the Web site Democracy Now, Pakistani border troops in September purportedly blocked a U.S. raid on Pakistani territory. The U.S. military has since denied the operation. This, along with the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the succession ceremony in Sind, has prompted outcries from Pakistani civilians. Ali has been visiting Pakistan regularly and writing articles for the London Review of Books.
"Ali is critical of American foreign policy and Islamic fundamentalism," Aiyer explained.
Ali is also a frequent contributor to The Guardian and The Nation and is on the editorial board of the New Left Review and is also a BBC filmmaker.
He was born in Lahore in 1943 and was educated at Oxford University, where he became involved in student politics, like the movement against the war in Vietnam.
His fiction includes a series of historical novels about Islam like "A Sultan in Palermo" (2005). Another one of his books, "Bush in Babylon" (2003), is an assessment of the U.S. military invasion in Iraq.
The Winegarden Professorship must go to a candidate that according to UM-Flint's Web site contributes to the "understanding and appreciation for the sciences and humanities in the context of the emerging global world economy."
When Ali is not working, traveling the world, doing television and radio shows and writing, he lives at home in London with his family.
Past recipients have included such American heavyweights like last year's award-winning actor Will Power.
Alea can be reached at aleao@umflint.edu.
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