Palestine, Academic Freedom, and the Demands of Civility

Professor Steven Salaita is at the center of an international protest against academic censorship and the silencing of dissent. During the summer of 2014, he tweeted about Israel’s assault on Gaza. As a result, he was “de-hired” from his position as tenured professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois on the basis of “civility” when wealthy donors objected to his statement. Dr. Salaita’s most recent books, The Holy Land in Transit: Colonialism and the Quest for Canaan, analyses the rhetoric and myths of settlement in both North America and Israel and “patterns that connect Indigenous writing in both locations.” Other books include Israel’s Dead Soul; Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures & Politics; and Anti-Arab Racism in the USA.
*The UN estimates 1,523 civilians including 519 children were among the 2,192 dead in Gaza during the summer of 2014. Amnesty International condemned Israel for “displaying callous indifference” and flouting ‘laws of war” in their “disproportionate” attacks on Gaza.
Palestine, Academic Freedom, and the Demands of Civility

Sponsored by the UCSB Departments of History and Anthropology, The Center for New Racial Studies, Center for Research on Women & Social Justice, Hull Chair, and Carsey-Wolf Center

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