[Air-l] AOIR in Toronto

[Alex Kuskis]

Dear Barry,
You got 2 things wrong:
1. My name, which you've condescendingly mangled, despite the 
fact that we've met several times and even had lunch together (I 
recollect that I paid!), and
2. The fact that I wrote, "The executive who
decided that English was to be the association's working
language in all matters was almost all-American".
I know exactly who was on the executive at that time.

Be that as it may, my goal is not to malign AIR, which I hope to 
re-join one day, but to put the record straight from the perspective
of those who worked hard on the Toronto conference but weren't
thanked. Some were even told not to attend the banquet! It was 
Mr. Hunsinger who brought the matter up and I had to respond to it.

I hope that AIR will reconsider its monolingual English language
policy, which is increasingly out of synch with a multilingual
world and Internet. Pax!............Alex Kuskis 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Wellman" <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>
To: "aoir list" <air-l at aoir.org>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 1:52 PM
Subject: [Air-l] AOIR in Toronto


> Re Alexis Kusis' comments about AoIR in Toronto.
> 
> a) There were more than one American on the Executive Committee.
> b) The change in conference organizer had very little to do with the
> question of language. It had a lot to do with leadership.
> c) Other facts are not as I, or people working with me, remember them.
> 
> I don't think it is appropriate to say more about an unhappy past
> experience.
> 
> Barry
> _____________________________________________________________________
> 
>  Barry Wellman         Professor of Sociology        NetLab Director
>  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
> 
>  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
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