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Sat Mar 10 2007
ALIAGA PETITION
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR APPEAL FOR DAVID
ALIAGA (PETITION TEXT BELOW) BY SIGNING THE PETITION AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:
An Appeal to the Italian State for Academic Justice
for David Aliaga
Those unfamiliar with David's
case might like to begin by reading:Doctoral
torture: an interview with David Aliaga
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Among
those who have supported David Aliaga's long struggle for justice are the
following:
US linguist
and human rights activist
Noam Chomsky,
Chilean
playwright and activist
Ariel Dorfman,
Former
Clean Hands magistrate
Antonio Di Pietro,
President
of the Canadian Anthropology Society Margaret Rodman,
President
of the American Anthropology Society James Peacock,
President
of the Canadian Archaeology Society Jane Kelly,
The
Canadian Association of University Teachers,
The
Canadian Graduate Council,
The
American Association of University Professors,
Canadian MP
Diane Ablonczy,
Philosopher, activist & JR Editor
Domenico Pacitti.
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An Appeal to the Italian State for
Academic Justice for David Aliaga
To:
Mr Giorgio Napolitano, Italian President
Mr Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister
Mr Fabio Mussi, Italian Universities Minister
Dear Sirs,
We urgently invite you to set up a special commission of inquiry in order to
resolve the academic injustices suffered by David Aliaga. Such a commission
should include an international component with full powers to conduct a
comprehensive, correct and impartial review of Mr Aliaga’s case.
Mr Aliaga enrolled on a doctoral course in Ethnoanthropology at the
University of Calabria in 1987, duly completed his work and obtained the
approval of international experts in the field. But in 1991 an Italian
examining commission inexplicably failed him.
Mr Aliaga has always argued convincingly that the examining commission's
criteria were based not upon merit but upon vindictiveness as a result of
his having reported serious irregularities relating both to the commission
and to the supervision he received in the course of his doctoral studies in
Italy.
The examining commission had, in fact, failed to turn up on July 25 1991,
the day of Mr Aliaga’s examination. Mr. Aliaga has also complained that
there was no appeals process to respond to grievances and that a recent
review of his case by the Italian national universities council (CUN) was
conducted unfairly and that he was not invited to testify about his own
ordeal.
The special commission of inquiry should also provide clear answers to the
following questions:
• Why did the entire Italian examining commission fail to turn up for Mr
Aliaga’s examination?
• Why was there such a wide divergence in evaluation of Mr Aliaga’s work by
his supervisor and by international scholars, on one hand, and by the
Italian national examining commission, on the other?
• Why did CUN fail to invite Mr Aliaga to defend his case?
• Why do Italian universities not have a proper appeals process which allows
students to defend and discuss their grievances?
Your satisfactory response to this petition would provide a first important
step towards recognising student dignity, rendering Italian academics more
accountable for their evaluations and generally improving the poor
credibility of Italian universities.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
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