Steven Salaita will be speaking in Urbana tomorrow, Tues. Sept 8, at a 12:30pm press conference at the University YMCA, 1001 S Wright St. The press conference will follow an 11:30am student walkout and rally on the quad.
The press conference will feature several speakers:
Professor Steven Salaita
Professor Robert Warrior, director of American Indian Studies UIUC
Maria LaHood, senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights
Michael Rothberg, head of the English Department at UIUC, on behalf of the Modern Language Association (MLA)
Eman Ghanayem and Rico Kleinstein, students at UIUC
I think events like these are an important way to raise the visibility of concerns about the Salaita firing. In fact, I think there should be events and debates at colleges across the country, to analyze the meaning of academic freedom and discuss these issues.
I will be speaking on Weds. Sept 17 at noon at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, IL, about the Salaita case and Constitutional law. I’ll also be speaking on Mon. Sept. 22 at 7pm at UIUC at Allen Hall’s Unit One (I’ve been hoping to make this a debate, but so far I’ve been unable to find anyone in the administration or the faculty who supports the firing of Salaita and is willing to debate me).
An event in New Mexico partly inspired by the events surrounding Professor Salaita’s firing:
American Studies Department Friday Forum
Academic Freedom and Activism
September 19
SUB Lobo A&B, 2-3:30pm
Across the field of American Studies and beyond questions of academic freedom, free speech, and scholarly activism are ever present. This forum is intended to raise questions about the possibility and limits of academic freedom in a context in which academic tenure is in decline, University administrations are anxious about “incivility,” and free speech is increasingly attacked within culture wars.
Among the questions addressed by the forum are the following:
What forms of speech are included in academic freedom?
How might community engagement reveal the complexities of academic freedom?
Are there boundaries of speech and activism in the classroom, particularly when teaching about politically charged subjects?
What happens when the academic freedom of some perpetuates the lack of freedom for others, as was argued in the recent American Studies Association vote to endorse an academic boycott?
Panelists:
Alex Lubin, Moderator, American Studies Department Chair
David Correia, Associate Professor of American Studies
Nick Estes, Graduate Student in American Studies
Marsha Baum, Chair, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, UNM
Hank Reichman, American Association of University Professors, AAUP