Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association seeks to foster the free exchange of knowledge as a human right and to inhibit infringements on that right by government restrictions on scholars. The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provide the principal standards by which human rights violations are identified today. Those rights include the right to education and work, freedom of movement and residence, and freedom of association and assembly.

Universities

Protesting MIT’s Disciplining of Grad for pro-Palestine Activism and Advocacy

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Sally Kornbluth President Sally.kornbluth@mit.edu . . . Dear President Kornbluth and Colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about the recent disciplinary action […]

Education

Protesting Flawed Disciplinary Process toward Student Protesters at Swarthmore

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Valerie Smith President Swarthmore College president@swarthmore.edu Dear President Smith and colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our concern about the flawed disciplinary proceedings involving a number of […]

Education

Taking Issue with Suspension of Harvard Library Access for Students and Faculty staging “Read-In” to Protest Gaza War

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | – Middle East Studies Association Alan M. Garber President, Harvard University alan_garber@harvard.edu . . . Dear President Garber, Provost Manning, and Vice President for the Harvard Library and University Librarian Whitehead: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on […]

Israel/ Palestine

Protesting U of Minnesota Barring Students from Campus for Protesting Gaza War

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Rebecca M. Cunningham President, University of Minnesota upres@umn.edu . . . Dear President Cunningham and Colleagues: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our concern about the decision of […]

censorship

Protesting Wake Forest University’s Cancellation of a Lecture by Professor Rabab Abdelhadi

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Dear President Wente and Provost Gillespie: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our concern about Wake Forest University’s decision to cancel a scheduled lecture by Professor Rabab Abdelhadi, […]

censorship

Protesting Cornell University’s Suspension and threatened Deportation of graduate Student Momodou Taal for Protest

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Dear Interim President Kotlikoff, Provost Bala, Dr. Lombardi and Ms. Liang: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our extreme concern about your decision to temporarily suspend Cornell graduate […]

Anti-Zionism

Protesting the Firing of Tenured Professor Maura Finkelstein for Criticizing Zionism

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Dear President Harring, Provost Furge and Professor Dowd: We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about the announcement by Muhlenberg College that it intends to terminate […]

Israel/ Palestine

Protesting Israel’s targeted destruction of all Schools and Universities in Gaza

Committee on Academic Freedom

Middle East Studies Association Board | Committee on Academic Freedom | – Dear President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin, We write to you on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) and the Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to […]

censorship

Rebuking New York University for trying to Outlaw Criticism of Israel by Conflating Zionism with Judaism

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association | – Linda G. Mills President, New York University linda.mills@nyu.edu Georgina Dopico Provost, New York University georgina.dopico@nyu.edu . . . We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern […]