Vindication for Steven Salaita: A victory for academic freedom in a textbook case of “the Israel exception”

November 14, 2015
Salon

As Steven Salaita recounts it in his just-published book,Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom,” on the afternoon of Aug. 2, 2014, he was “enjoying a typical Saturday: the Blacksburg farmer’s market and Bollo’s in the morning, followed by a group nap and family time on the back deck.”  Then came a short, curt email from the chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Salaita had just accepted a tenured position on the faculty.  It said, simply, “Dear Dr. Salaita, Please read the attached letter.”  He continues, “Why in the world, I wondered, would the chancellor write me a letter? With a feeling of dread, I opened the attachment to find what appeared to be a termination letter.” ...

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Last modified 

November 18, 2015