BY HANK REICHMAN

Matthew Hedges

On Wednesday, during a court session lasting all of five minutes, British scholar Matthew Hedges was sentenced to life in prison for espionage by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  Hedges, a 31-year-old student at Durham University, was arrested May 5 at Dubai airport as he was departing after a two-week visit to the country.  He was compelled to sign a document in Arabic — although he doesn’t speak Arabic — that was used as a confession statement.  The university and his family say he was researching Emirati security and foreign policy for his PhD thesis.  In a joint statement, Durham and Exeter Universities called for Hedges’s release, declaring, “The detention of any academic researcher cuts to the core of the principles of academic endeavour.  It is absolutely vital that academics the world over are free to conduct legitimate research without fear of interference or arrest.”  (For background on the case see articles in the Washington Post and The Guardian.)

The British government has protested and the UAE’s ambassador to London, Sulaiman Hamid al-Mazroui, said today that Hedges’ family had “made a request for clemency and the government is studying that request,” adding that a pardon would be considered in the context of close British-UAE relations.  It is hoped that Hedges will be released next Thursday, the UAE National Day and a time when traditionally as many as 1,000 people jailed for a range of offenses are granted a pardon by the president.

[UPDATE 11/26: Daniela Tejada-Venegas, Matt Hedges’ wife, reports that he has been pardoned and should be returning home soon. Terrific news!]

New York University (NYU) has a campus at Abu Dhabi in the UAE that has been the subject of controversy in the past for violations of academic freedom.  Over 200 NYU faculty members quickly mobilized in response to the Hedges sentencing, calling on NYU president Andrew Hamilton to condemn Hedges’s arrest and treatment and convene a campus forum to discuss how best to defend academic freedom across the university’s six campuses around the world.  “We believe it is essential for NYU to condemn this flagrant violation of academic freedom in a country where NYU operates a portal campus supported by UAE government financing,” the faculty members declared.  In response, Hamilton said that “it is important to note that we do not have any information regarding the case of Mr. Hedges beyond what has been publicly reported.”  He added: “Those teaching and studying at the NYU Abu Dhabi campus engage in rigorous intellectual discussion, scholarly research, and academic analysis every day with no restrictions.”

Several NYU faculty members have been barred from teaching at the Abu Dhabi campus.  Sociologist and AAUP chapter leader Andrew Ross was barred from the campus in 2015 over unspecified concerns thought to be connected with his criticism of the exploitation of migrant construction workers in the country.  It is also likely that he was spied upon by a private investigator tied to the UAE, based on reports published in the New York Times.  A journalism professor, Mohamad Bazzi, had his security clearance rejected because he is a Shia muslim seeking to enter the Sunni UAE.  Arang Keshavarzian, a professor of Middle Eastern politics, was barred on similar grounds.  In response, the NYU journalism department has boycotted the campus over threats to academic freedom.

In December 2016, Kristina Bogos, a graduate student at Georgetown University, was denied entry to Qatar, where she sought to continue research on the conditions of migrant workers that she began as an undergraduate at NYU Abu Dhabi.  The NYU chapter of the AAUP sent a letter to President Hamilton calling on him to condemn the action.  That letter concluded, “both the banning and the investigation of Bogos (and Ross) have serious implications for the state of academic freedom at NYU.  We feel strongly that it is incumbent upon you to clarify the university’s position by condemning publicly these bans and the use of surveillance techniques to spy on and thwart the careers of valued members of the NYU community.  We urge you to mediate with NYU’s Emirati partners to lift the bans on both Bogos and Ross.  A successful collaboration with the UAE or any other foreign entity demands that all parties adhere to the basic principles of academic freedom that are a requirement for meaningful scholarship.”

The following is the full text of the petition sent yesterday to Hamilton by 205 NYU faculty members:

November 22nd 2018

Dear President Hamilton,

As faculty at New York University, a global network university with a presence spanning six continents, including a campus in the United Arab Emirates, we are shocked and concerned by news of the sentencing on November 21 of Matthew Hedges, a UK-national and Durham University doctoral candidate, to life imprisonment by a court in the UAE on a charge of spying for the UK government.  Mr. Hedges was sentenced after a five-minute procedure without defense counsel in attendance.

We concur with the Vice Chancellor of Durham University that there is no evidence  to suspect Mr. Hedges of engaging in anything other than legitimate academic research and note the statement of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office that  “[w]e have seen no evidence to back up charges against him.”  

Given this, we believe it is essential for NYU to condemn this flagrant violation of academic freedom in a country where NYU operates a portal campus supported by UAE government financing.

We therefore call on the University leadership to take the following steps promptly:

1. We urge Andrew Hamilton, as president of NYU, to issue a public statement condemning the arrest and sentencing of Matthew Hedges, as well as his prolonged detention under conditions tantamount to torture. The statement should make it clear that the UAE’s treatment and sentencing of Mr. Hedges have grave implications for NYU’s ongoing operation in Abu Dhabi.

2. Our university should convene an open forum at its Washington Square campus to discuss ways of upholding the principles of academic freedom throughout the Global Network University (GNU). A permanent standing committee devoted to academic freedom should also be convened consisting of volunteers from all GNU sites. All faculty, students, and staff should be invited to submit their experiences and concerns to the standing committee, with an explicit assurance that those who do so will be fully protected from retaliation on the part of administrators and senior faculty members. It is the understanding of faculty on Washington Square and at the Global Network University sites that the university administration will do its utmost to protect their academic freedom at their workplace in accord with the full spectrum of AAUP protections.

3. The NYU administration should establish steps to be taken whenever government officials or policies encroach upon academic freedom of students or faculty at a campus or program site. Information about such encroachments, when they occur, should be publicly available.

In NYU President Andrew Hamilton’s most recent  communique to the university community, he highlights that NYU has an unparalleled level of global engagement. We call on him and the NYU administration to live up to this unique responsibility by voicing his unwavering commitment to academic freedom and to NYU’s Code of Ethical Conduct, which governs nondiscriminatory access to Global Network University (GNU) sites.

Respectfully,

1. John Archer, Professor, Department of English
2. Rebecca E. Karl, Professor, History Department
3. Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor, Media, Culture and Communication
4. Zachary Lockman, Professor, MEIS and History
5. Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis
6. Lauren Minsky, Assistant Professor, History Department, NYUAD
7. Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor, MCC and the Gallatin School
8. Sonya Posmentier, Associate Professor, Department of English
9. Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Professor, Gallatin School
10. Mohamad Bazzi, Associate Professor, Journalism
11. Michele Mitchell, Associate Professor, History
12. Julie Livingston, Professor, SCA and History
13. Dana Polan, Professor, Cinema Studies
14. Marie Monaco, Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience & Physiology
15. Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
16. Daniel J Walkowitz, Professor Emeritus, History/Social and Cultural Analysid
17. George Shulman, the gallatin school
18. Emanuela Bianchi, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature
19. Richard Halpern, Professor, Department of English
20. Lisa Duggan, Professor, Social & Cultural Analysis
21. Mona El-Ghobashy, Clinical Assistant Professor, Liberal Studies
22. Monica Kim, Assistant Professor, History
23. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Professor, English
24. Steven Hahn, Professor of History, History Department
25. Nikhil Pal Singh, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History
26. Leila Pourtavaf, Visiting Assistant Professor, Middle East and Islamic Studies
27. Brett Gary, Associate Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication
28. Bertell Ollman, Professor Dept. of Politics
29. Martha Hodes, Professor, Department of History
30. Ritty Lukose, Associate Professor, Gallatin
31. Jim Uleman, Professor, Psychology Dept.
32. Diana Taylor, University Professor, Performance Studies and Spanish
33. Natasha Schull, Associate Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
34. Steven Lukes, Professor, Sociology
35. Hasia Diner professor
36. Anna McCarthy, Professor and Chair, Cinema Studies
37. Tejaswini Ganti, Associate Professor, Anthropology
38. John Waters, Clinical Asst Prof, Irish studies Program
39. Barbara Weinstein, Silver Professor, History
40. Michelle Lee, PhD Student, Psychology Department
41. Gregory Murphy, Professor, Department of Psychology
42. Paula McDowell, Professor of English
43. Pauline Fernandes, Instructor, SPS Division of Programs in Business
44. Dan Streible, Assoc. Professor, Cinema Studies
45. Roozbeh Kiani, Assistant Professor, Neural Science
46. Jonathan Winawer, Assistant Professor, Psychology
47. Bambi B Schieffelin, Collegiate Professor, Professor Anthropology
48. Angela Zito, Associate Professor, Anthropology/Religious Studies
49. Suzanne G Cusick, Professor of Music, FAS
50. Alexander Rich, PhD candidate, Department of Psychology
51. Anamaria Alexandrescu, Ph.D. student, Medical School
52. Elayne Oliphant, Assistant Professor, Anthropology
53. Jeongmin Kim, GPS Teaching Fellow, NYU Shanghai
54. Emily Boeke, Doctoral Student, Psychology
55. Lenora Hanson, Assistant Professor, English
56. Paul Bergin, Research Associate, CNS
57. Amir Minsky, Assistant Teaching Professor of History, NYUAD
58. Sharon Friedman, Associate Professor, Gallatin
59. Ayse Baltacioglu-Brammer, Assistant Prof., History-MEIS
60. Rayna Rapp, Professor, Anthropology
61. Jeff Goodwin, Professor, Sociology
62. Katherine Thorson, Postdoctoral Researcher, Psychology
63. Tao Goffe, Assistant Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis
64. Keith Miller, Curator The Gallatin Galleries, Gallatin School
65. Nicole Eustace, Professor, History
66. Jane B. Malmo, Teacher, Department of Drama
67. Ruvanee Vilhauer, Clinical Associate Professor, Psychology Department
68. Andra Mihali, Postdoctoral fellow, Center for Neural Science
69. Susannah Levi, Associate Professor, Communicative Sciences and Disorders
70. Ben Stillerman, PhD candidate, Psychology
71. Marita Sturken, Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication
72. Manu Goswami, Associate Professor, History Dept
73. Thuy Linh Tu, Associate Professor, SCA
74. Kim Phillips-Fein, Associate Professor, Gallatin School and History
75. Ailis Cournane, Assistant Professor, Linguistics
76. Marion Kaplan, Professor, Dept. of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
77. Catherine Coray, Assoc. Arts Professor, TSOA Drama/NYUAD Faculty Affiliate
78. Adam H. Becker, Professor, Classics and Religious Studies
79. Herrick Chapman, Professor, History and Institute of French Studies        
80. Carol Anne Spreen, Associate Professor, International Education, ASH        
81. Howard Besser, Professor, Cinema Studies                
82. Martin A. Schain, Professor of Politics, Emeritus                
83. Laura Slatkin, Professor, Gallatin School and Comparative Literature         
84. Molly Nolan, Professor emerita, Dept. of History                
85. Vasuki Nesiah, Assoc. Prof. of Practice, The Gallatin School                
86. Thomas Thesen, Associate Professor, Neurology,                 
87. Maureen N. McLane, Professor, English                
88. Avital Ronell,  University Professor of the Humanities                 
89. Romain Ferrali, Postdoctoral Associate, NYUAD Social Science Division        
90. Aaron Chow, Research Scientist, Division of Engineering                
91. Barbara Browning, Professor, Dept. of Performance Studies                
92. Lisa Gitelman, Professor of English and MCC                
93. Susan Murray, Associate Professor, Media, Culture and Communication        
94. Marjorie Rhodes,  Associate Professor, Department of Psychology        
95. Sally Guttmacher Emeritus Professor, Global School of Public Health        
96. Jini Kim Watson, Associate Professor, English                
97. Pacharee Sudhinaraset, Assistant Professor, English                
98. Bruce Grant, Professor, Department of Anthropology
99. Joshua Sooter, PhD Candidate, NYU History Dept. (Dissertation Fellow at NYUAD)        
100. Laura Viidebaum, Assistant Professor, Classics                
101. Jay Van Bavel, Associate Professor, Psychology
102. Tessa West, associate professor, Psychology
103. Raffaella Cribiore Professor Department of Classics
104. Stephen Duncombe, Professor, Gallatin School & Media Culture and Communication
105. David Konstan, Professor, Classics
106. Cayetana Adrianzen Ponce, Phd Candidate History.
107. M. Florencia Assaneo, Postdoctoral Associate, Psychology Department
108. Robert Young, Professor, English
109. Gabriel Young, PhD Student, History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
110. Patricia Crain, Professor, English Department
111. Alex Boodrookas, Ph.D. Candidate, Departments of Middle Eastern Studies & History
112. Karen Holmberg, Visiting Asst Professor, Gallatin School
113. Dipti Desai, Associate Professor, Art and Art Professions
114. Sinan Antoon, Associate Professor, Gallatin
115. Sara Pursley, Assistant Professor, MEIS and History
116. Elaine Freedgood, Professor, English
117. Jean Randich, Adjunct, Drama
118. David W Hogg, Professor of Physics and Data Science
119. Simón Trujillo, Assistant Professor, English
120. Amy Whitaker, Assistant Professor, Visual Arts Administration
121. Susie Linfield, Associate Professor, Journalism
122. Peter Nicholls, Professor, English
123. Sylvia Molloy, Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities Emerita,  Spanish and Portuguese
124. Alejandro Velasco, Associate Professor, Gallatin and History
125. Walter Alvarez, Adjunct Asst. Professor, Silver School of Social Work
126. David Poeppel, Professor, Psychology
127. John Victor Singler, Professor Emeritus, Linguistics
128. David Sider, professor, classics
129. Fred Myers, Professor, Anthropology
130. Diana Turk, associate professor, Teaching and Learning
131. Aviva Slesin, Adjunct, Open Arts/Tisch
132. Marta Peixoto, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
133. Chyng Sun, Clinical Professor, SPS
134. Crystal Parikh, Professor, English and Social & Cultural Analysis
135. Sukhdev Sandhu, Associate Professor, English/ Social & Cultural Analysis
136. Martha Rust, Associate Professor, English
137. Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak
138. Faye Ginsburg, Kriser Professor of Anthropology,
139. Linda Gordon, University Professor of the Humanities, dept. of history
140. Jill Lane, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Spanish & Portuguese
141. Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology, emeritus
142. Erik Meddles, French Studies and History
143. Kathleen Gerson, Collegiate Professor, Sociology
144. Natasha Iskander, Associate Professor, Wagner School of Public Servi ce
145. Gary Holden, Professor, Silver School of Social Work
146. Patrick Deer, Associate Professor, English
147. Patrick E Shrout, Professor, Psychology
148. Liam Murphy, Professor of Law
149. Sibylle Fischer, Associate Professor, Spanish and History
150. Camille Rullan, Graduate Student, Center for Neural Science
151. Colin Vanderburg, PhD student, Department of English
152. Michael Shenefelt, Clinical Professor, Liberal Studies
153. Valerie Nunez, Research Scientist, CNS
154. Heidi White, Clinical Professor, Liberal Studies
155. Paula England, Silver Professor, Sociology
156. Rustin Zarkar, PhD Candidate, MEIS
157. Geoffrey Levin, PhD Candidate, HJS/History
158. Helga Tawil-Souri, Associate Professor, Media Culture and Communication
159. Rustin Zarkar, PhD Candidate, MEIS (Dissertation Fellow at NYUAD)
160. Thomas Abercrombie, Associate Professor, Anthropology
161. Kathy Engel, Associate Arts Professor, Dept of Art & Public Policy, Tisch
162. Harvey Molotch, Sociology and SCA
163. Mark Crispin Miller, Professor, Media, Culture and Communication
164. Julia Jarcho, Assistant Professor, English
165. Athena Vouloumanos, Associate Professor, Psychology
166. Terry Knickerbocker Distinguished Teacher Dept. of Drama
167. Isra Ali, Clinical Assistant Professor, Media Culture and Communication
168. Katherine Hurbis-Cherrier, Associate Professor, Undergraduate Film and Television
169. Thomas Bender, University Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus
170. Busra Tanriverdi-Ozkan, PhD student, Psychology
171. Ana Dopico, Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
172. Timothy J. Reiss, Professor Emeritus, Comparative Literature
173. David Larsen, Clinical Associate Professor, Liberal Studies
174. Rossen Djagalov, Assistant Professor, Russian and Slavic Studies
175. Allison Korinek, PhD Student, History and French Studies
176. Mitra Rastegar, Clinical Assistant Professor, Liberal Studies
177. Theresa Aiello, PhD; Associate Professor, retired, active, Social Work
178. Ahmed Hafezi, MA Student, History
179. Valerie Forman Gallatin School
180. Andrea Gadberry, Assistant Professor, Gallatin School and Department of Comparative Literature
181. Rachel Welsh, doctoral candidate, History
182. James Ryan, Associate Director, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies
183. Eugene Nicole Professor of French Dept of French
184. Lala Straussner, Professor, Social Work
185. Ada Ferrer, Professor, History & CLACS
186. Christine Harrington, Professor, Politics Department
187. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor, History
188. Ann Pellegrini, Professor, Performance Studies & Social and Cultural Analysis
189. Ada Ferrer, Professor, History & CLACS
190. Amy Zhang, assistant professor, anthropology
191. Michael S. Landy, Professor of Psychology and Neural Science
192. Rebecca Anne Goetz, Associate Professor of History
193. Carley Moore, Clinical Professor, Global Liberal Studies
194. Dara Rossman Regaignon, English and Expository Writing Program
195. Edward Ziter, Professor, Drama
196. Renee Blake, Associate Professor, Linguistics and Social & Cultural Analysis
197. Mara Mills, Associate Professor, Media, Culture, and Communication
198. Larry Lockridge, Professor Emeritus, English
199. Rosalind Fredericks, Associate Professor, Gallatin
200. Rebecca Amato, Gallatin
201. Asli Igsiz, Assistant Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
202. Beth Boyle Machlan, Senior Lecturer in the Humanities, Expository Writing Program
203. Raymond J. Ricketts, Senior Language Lecturer, Expository Writing Program
204. Justin Warner, Lecturer, Expository Writing Program
205. Nader Uthman, Clinical Associate Professor, MEIS