A New Project Exploring Attacks on Academic Freedom

Faculty on the Front Lines: AAUP Members Share Stories of Repression and Resistance

The past few weeks have seen a volume of violations of academic freedom not seen since the Red Scare. Governmental officials, institutional boards, and institutional leaders have been purging faculty and staff for speech that is undeniably protected by the First Amendment.

As we said previously at this newsletter, this isn’t cancel culture, it’s censorship.

But this era censoring of faculty, staff, and student speech hardly started a couple of weeks ago. In fact, scores of people working in college and university settings have been suspended, dismissed, and otherwise silenced for the expression of their political opinions regarding the rights of the Palestinian people.

These issues are no doubt uncomfortable for many, and can be fraught on campuses, but the high calling of higher education is to confront these challenges directly, and there can be no exception to speech over a single issue.

While the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom is a relatively new and relatively small group, one of our collective goals is to try to highlight the work of others who are actively working in ways that are consistent with the core of the CDAF mission statement of, “preserving and expanding conditions that make it possible to work, teach, learn, create, and share knowledge in ways that promote the common good.”

One of those people who is doing this work is Anna Feder, who previously shared her expertise on how to defend your rights when you are under attack, and who has now spearheaded a new series, Faculty on the Front Lines, which shares the testimony of teachers and scholars who have been targeted and silenced.

Speaking personally, watching these videos makes me reflect on two things. One is the importance of continuing to speak up and be heard against these obvious injustices. The second is how this kind of repression goes well beyond the individuals who are targeted because the absence of these people from their communities will be felt by many.

Below, we’ve published Anna Feder’s introduction to the series, where she lays out the origins and goals of the project. You will see that there is a common playbook when it comes to the pressures that lead to the denial of academic freedom.

Following Anna’s introduction, you’ll find the teaser video for the series and a link to the entire playlist of faculty testimonies. - John Warner (CDAF Fellow)

Faculty on the Front Lines: AAUP Members Share Stories of Repression and Resistance

by Anna Feder

On August 13, 2024, I was terminated from Emerson College after seventeen years for screening the film Israelism as part of the free public series that I curated. I had also supported our students in speaking out against the genocide in occupied Palestine.

It has been an honor to collaborate with the Palestine Anti-Repression Network (PARN), a space to build solidarity with fellow educators who face repression both within their institutions and beyond.

I have had the privilege of documenting and sharing the stories of ten of our members, all of whom are part of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). These interviews have been edited to under eight minutes as a way into their stories. While some of these faculty members have shared their experiences with the press, this project aims to provide additional context for their individual narratives. At the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF), the sponsor of this series, we want to highlight these stories as a small sample of a disturbing trend in higher education. Colleges and universities are increasingly taking alarming measures to silence professors who advocate for Palestine, often targeting them in part for the scholarship that made them desirable hires.

During my time spent with these brilliant and principled academics, a few key observations stood out. In several instances, administrators have targeted faculty members in response to external pressures. This targeting often stems from the faculty’s support for students who are expressing what should be regarded as protected speech according to the First Amendment, advocating for their institutions not to invest in or otherwise support the ongoing genocide in Gaza. There is a growing tendency to twist this support into coercing or indoctrinating naive students, infantilizing them, while also accusing faculty of exercising undue and unprofessional influence. This is a cynical perversion of the primary responsibility of educators: to promote student growth into informed, engaged, and responsible citizens.

A clear theme that emerged from these interviews is the extent to which certain outside organizations—such as Canary Mission, the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International, StopAntisemitism, and Mothers Against College Antisemitism—will go to harass college administrators into sanctioning, suspending, or terminating faculty members for their social media posts, classroom content, and even their scholarly work. This often occurs without regard for the protections these institutions supposedly have in place for free speech and academic freedom, which should be seen as fundamental to a free society. They frequently leverage the threat of withdrawing funding, similar to the current administration’s approach in targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and even singling out support and accommodations for transgender students.

Finally, when faculty received support from their colleagues, as seen in the cases of Shanae Aurora Martinez at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Judith Norman at Trinity University in San Antonio, and Christa Noel Robbins at the University of Virginia, the outcomes were notably better. Both Judith and Christa successfully defended their cases, while Shanae’s suspension was reduced from eight months to just one month. Now is the time for us to act collectively and defend our colleagues vigorously and without apology.

Thank you to everyone who shared their stories. At PARN, we are committed to continuing the documentation of educators’ experiences, including staff and K-12 educators, who have faced harassment, doxing, loss of employment, and other challenges due to their pro-Palestine views. These incidents represent clear attacks on academic freedom, shared governance (with which faculty should be included in decision-making at their institutions), and free speech. If you have experienced such attacks, please contact PARN via email. Additionally, I have curated the Academic Freedom First Aid Kit, a list of related quick-response resources as part of CDAF’s Academic Freedom Field Guide. If you haven’t already done so, join your campus union today; find your AAUP chapter or use this step-by-step guide to create a chapter. The attacks on our freedoms are coming from all directions. It’s critical that we unite to fight collectively and get loud in defense of our ability to do the vital work of education without interference.

You can see the full project here: https://www.aaup.org/faculty-on-the-front-lines

Anna Feder is an educator, curator, organizer, and documentary filmmaker with nearly two decades of experience in higher education. For twelve years, she directed the Bright Lights Cinema Series, a free public exhibition program at Emerson College in Boston that focused on social justice cinema. Recently, her termination from the college and the cancellation of her series have become the subject of a lawsuit, which alleges that Emerson violated her free speech rights. Additionally, Feder is an organizer with the Palestine Anti-Repression Network, a platform dedicated to building solidarity among educators who actively resist oppression. She is currently collaborating with the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the AAUP to document the experiences of educators who have faced repression for their support of Palestinian liberation.

See the entire playlist of videos here.

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The views expressed in this newsletter are those of individual contributors and not those of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) or the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.