Cancellings

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Revision as of 16:51, 12 July 2023 by Manson Lilian (talk | contribs) (→‎How to Resist)
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See also Nondisclosure Clauses.

  • "THE NEW PURITANS", Atlantic (2021) by Ann Applebaum is a good survey with lots of specifics about cancellings and the various effects on its victims.


Contents

Introduction

These actually aren't all cancellings. I use this to keep track of the various people persecuted by university administrators,for various reasons. A cancelling proper is where the wokefolk on Twitter, etc. mob someone and try to ruin their reputation.

Indiana

I live in Indiana and I am Chair of Committee A (Academic Freedom) of the Indiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors (the AAUP), so it is convenient for me to list Indiana separately.

Donnelly, Harold (Purdue Math, 2023)

Not a political case. The Purdue Math head reduced this tenured professor's pay by 100% by fiat with claims his teaching was poor. 80% of the department's full professors voted No Confidence in her.

  • Marginal Revolution blog post by Tyler Cowen. Note how reflexively pro-Administration the comments are. Tenure really is needed, or the public will call for professors to be fired for low student ratings.

John Kluge (Indiana schoolteacher)

I plan to set up a special John Kluge page, but have not done so yet.

Zhihao Kong (Purdue student, Chinese government harassment)


McPhail, Mark (Indiana U.--Northwest, Gary, 2022)

McPhail, Mark has his own page.

Purdue students

Rasmusen, Eric (Indiana Bus. econ, 2003, 2019)

Sanders, Steve (Indiana Law, 2021)

Moore, Julie (Taylor, Writing, 2023)

Julie Moore was not cancelled, but she was fired improperly. After 6 or so years of routine renewals of her one-year untenured contract, she was suddenly told she would not be renewed but could get 6 weeks severance pay if she signed a nondisparagement agreement.

  • Blogs and Substacks
Tisby Substack and another Tisby Substack Kristin DuMez on Substack, May 4, 2023.
A good summary, by Beth Barr at her substack (May 10, 2023).
  • Media Coverage
Roys Report article by Bob Smietana with documents and a secret recording of Moore's conversation with her provost.
religionNewscom article (May 3, 2023) and the Indiana Public Radio aricle of May 2023.
article in Axios.com, May 4, 2023.

Spiegel, James (Taylor philosophy)

Not a cancelling, just a Christian college firing a conservative tenured professor for being too Christian.

  • "Fired Taylor Professor Tells His Story ," Roys Report, Julies Roys, podcast with transcript (Sept. 17, 2020). This has the background-- the Pence invitation and the Starbucks controversy and the underground newspaper, and also the alumni response.
The song: "There’s a little Hitler inside of you. There’s a little Hitler inside of me, yes there is. There’s a brutal killer within everyone. The hatred grows inside us naturally. I may seem as civilized as any man, and acts of heroism might even give me a rush. But if you cross me once or twice, you’ll find I’m really not that nice. I’m tempted to do things that would make Jeffrey Dahmer blush. Because there’s a little Hitler inside . . ."
“Several Taylor faculty have made posts on social media expressing their support for Black Lives Matter for defunding police and other leftist stances. And several faculty and staff attend a gay affirming church and encourage students to do the same. But the Taylor administrators permit these things.”
"At the first meeting, we had I was told there had been a complaint. I was not told that there was a formal harassment complaint. It was not until the termination meeting that I learned that there was a formal harassment complaint."

Individual's Pages

How to Resist

Cancellers

A surreal tale of one man’s campaign against an academic field,"] David Zimmerman, City Journal (2023).

Miscellaneous

  • “Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—-better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.” Proverbs 27:10

Girondins

  • Diane Klein
  • Mark McPhail
  • Julie Moore

Commentary on Cancellings Generally

  • Level 2 and 3 Witch Hunts

2021 and 2019, Paul Graham:

"We can classify witch hunts by how long such paths can be. E.g. in a level 3 witch hunt, you can be targeted for defending someone who defended someone who was targeted. I saw that happen in 2020. I don't think I've seen 4 hops yet though.

It happened to me. A mob came after me when I tweeted this because they thought I was defending Stallman for defending Minsky. (Actually I wasn't. Stallman just happened to be one of two people getting cancelled then.)"

Sep 17, 2019

"If we extended human lifespans sufficiently, everyone would be cancelled. The drift in moral fashion would ensure that even those most carefully orthodox in their opinions would have said something that later became heretical."

2019 had 245 comments and 105 quote retweets and 2K Likes.

Dorian Abbot (MIT, 2021)

Babak Babakinejad(MIT, Media Lab, 2019)

Babak wasn't cancelled at all, but I am sympathetic to him. He is a whistleblower at MIT who has sued MIT.

"Babak Babakinejad was the research lead on the now disbanded OpenAg (Open Agriculture) project at MIT’s Media Lab (formerly sponsored by Jeffrey Epstein). The project was an open-source food computer meant to revolutionise the hydroponic growth of food, and MIT claimed (falsely) that it was deployed in a refugee camp. Babak queried the legitimacy of the claims and alleged that waste containing many times the legal limit of nitrogen was being dumped into groundwater, potentially contaminating private wells. For Babak, the worst low was when, while on medical leave after suffering panic attacks, his attorney reported that the MIT lawyer told him, “Good luck to his career if he decides to sue MIT”."

Boudreau (Central Michigan, 2021)

Prof. Boudreau, who was represented by a lawyer from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, withdrew any claims he might have against CMU, retired from CMU (he was apparently eligible for retirement), and in exchange received 10 months' salary and benefits (from Sept. 1, 2020 when he had been fired, to June 30, 2021, the end of this academic year).

5. Dr. Boudreau shall be paid in a lump sum, less normal withholding taxes the value of pay and CMU's contribution to benefits through June 30, 2021 within thirty (30) days of this settlement. A W-2 will be issued for this payment.

15. Dr. Boudreau agrees that the terms of this Release, including the payment made hereunder, are confidential and shall not be divulged to any third party except his spouse, tax advisor, CPA, wealth manager, and/or his attorneys who shall be advised of this confidentiality provision. Dr. Boudreau shall not be held liable for breach of this confidentiality clause in the event he is compelled via subpoena to under oath in court of law regarding details or terms of his severance and/or settlement agreement provided that he gives prompt notice to the CMU's General Counsel so CMU has the opportunity to object to the subpoena.

16. In the event that Dr. Boudreau violates any aspect of this Agreement, he acknowledges that said breach shall cause damage to CMU. The parties understand that CMU may have to reveal the terms pursuant to FOIA unrelated to any request by the Union or Dr. Boudreau, who agree not to make, encourage, or otherwise participate in such request.

19. Dr. Boudreau shall not, by oral or written expression or any other act of communication to any third party, by name, disparage, criticize, or impugn the reputation or character of CMU's curent or former Board of Trustees members, Board of Trustees, administrators, directors, other employees,eagents and representatives, both individually and in their official capacities (Releas6s). This provision shall not be construed to prohibit Dr. Boudreau from communicating his disagreement with CMU's decision to terminate his employment for the way he spoke various words including the "n-word", his criticism of CMU's decision and generally his beliefs and opinion on the efficacy of his teaching methods. Dr. Boudreau further agrees that this provision concerning non-disparagement is a material condition ofthe consideration contained herein, that this provision is an essential part of this Agreement, and that any violation ofthe terms ofthis paragraph shall be deemed a material breach of the entire Agreement.

21. Dr. Boudreau agrees that this Agreement shall be binding and inure to the benefit of his successors, executors, administrators, personal representatives and assigns, and to the benefit of the predecessors, successors, and assigns of the Releasees, and further agrees and acknowledges that this Agreement contains and comprises the entire agreement and understandings of the parties, and that there are no additional promises or terms of this Agreement, other than those contained within this document and the documents referenced herein.

23. If any provision of this Agreement shall for any reason be held invalid, illegal, unenforceable, or in conflict with any law governing this Agreement, the validity of the remaining portions of this Agreement shall not be affected but shall continue in full legal force and effect to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Observations:

  • (1) He can talk about the incident he was fired for.
  • (2) He can disparage the University, just not the various individuals who are to blame for any university scandals he may reveal.
  • (3) The University and its officials are free to disparage him however much they want.
  • (4) No damages are specified for breach of the clause. He is paid his settlement money within 30 days, and there are no liquidated damages. Presumably the damages would be the default of expectation damages, which in this case would be like defamation damages except he would be liable for harm caused even by truthful statements about public figures.

Sara Braasch (Leftwing Yale Graduate Student who called the police when she found a strange black woman sleeping outside her dorm room, 2018)

Carl, Noah (Cambridge Psychology, fired 2019)

Amy Chua (Yale Law). See the Amy Chua page.

Trent Colbert: The Trap House Party (Yale Law). See the Trent Colbert page.

Jed DeVaro ( Cal State-East Bay econ)

DePiero,Zack


Roland Fryer (Harvard econ, 2019)

Scott Gerber (Law, Ohio Northern, 2023)

  • Article, Justthenews.com (June 2023).

Abbas Ghassemi (UC-Merced, "teaching professor" of engineering)

University of Iowa

The lawsuits were filed originally in 2017 and 2018."

Timothy Jackson, North Texas, Musicology

See the Timothy Jackson page.

Katz, Joshua (Princeton Classics, 2022)

See the Joshua Katz page.

Kilborn, Jason

Kilborn told Campus Reform that his classes “were cancelled for the entire semester on the very first day of class. He said he also had to undergo “an agonizing several-week period of ‘administrative leave,’” during which he was “barred from campus and prevented from participating in normal faculty communications and activities, including my elected position on the university promotion and tenure committee.”

Kilborn said he was compelled to submit to three hours of mental examination and a drug test by university doctors and a social worker, broken into two segments spanning the course of a week.

Chad KIMBALL (Broadway actor, 2021)


Brian KLATTMAN (Lehigh, 2021)

Diane Klein (LaVerne, Chapman)

In a meeting on the future of the law school last fall, Klein told colleagues that they must decide “whether we are willing to assassinate” Assistant Dean Jendayi Saada, who runs the Center for Academic and Bar Readiness.

  • Petition from Laverne faculty in support of KLein.

Gordon Klein, UCLA, Anderson School, Accounting (2020). See the Gordon Klein page.

Walter Lewin (MIT)

This is an odd one. I haven't figure it out yet.

[https://thetech.com/2014/12/09/walterlewin-v134-n60 "MIT cuts ties with Walter Lewin after online harassment probe Institute revokes emeritus title, removes online courses of popular physics professor who starred in viral videos"] The Tech (2014).

Jamie Lund (St. Mary's Law) (2013)

  • Above the Law guessing as to the true identity of a "sociopath". It looks like she was mistreated.

John MacAdams (Marquette, 2018)

"John McAdams, political science professor who took Marquette to the state Supreme Court, dies," Devi Shastri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 15, 2021.

Meriwether (Ohio, gender pronouns)

See Meriwether Case of Administration Persecution. Not a cancelling case, really, if I remember right; a wokeness case, though.

Morris, Evan (2022)

Richard Paxton (Pacific U., 2021, fired)

Pesta, Bryan (Cleveland State Management, 2022)

  • EJMR thread that talks about the grad student who got him fired.
  • Docket for Pesta v. Cleveland State.

Steve Sailer, Taki's Magazine (Aug 25, 2021). On skin tone and IQ.

Joseph Petry (Illinois)

  • January 27, 2021 News Release by Thies-Webber after winning on the motion to dismiss, with the Complaint and Motion to Dismiss and Objection to the Motion to Dismiss and Decision. This is the key document.

Stephen Porter (NC State, 2021)

"“Death by a Thousand Cuts”: Professor Files Lawsuit Against NC State University," Inside Higher Education, Oct. 11, 2021, Shannon Watkins.


Judge Pryor (2021)



J. Mark Ramseyer (Harvard Law, 2020). See the J. Mark Ramseyer page.

Schulz, Gregory (Concordia-Wisconsin, 2022)

Steven Shaviro (Wayne State English)

The Shaviro case is interesting because it's a "Man Bites Dog" case: a cancellation of a leftwing professor (self-described as a "Kitsch Marxist" by rightwingers. See also Loomis at U. of Rhode Island (https://nypost.com/2020/09/11/michael-reinoehl-justified-in-shooting-of-trump-supporter-professor/).

  • Shaviro's Facebook post: “I think it is far more admirable to kill a racist, homophobic, or transphobic speaker than it is to shout them down.” He said that shouting them down is moralistic self-indulgence that just helps the victim.

Shaw, Jodi (Smith librarian)

SKIDMORE, Mark (Michigan State, economist, 2023)

  • Skidmore's page with the BJMR questions about his paper and his replies, reply-to-referee style; questions from a Chronicle of Higher Ed reporter with his replies, and six pages of "Responses to Additional Criticisms".

Stock, Kathleen (Sussex, resigned under fire, 2021)

anti-Stock letter signed by 100 or so Oxford faculty] (2023).

Harald UHLIG (Chicago Econ, 2020)

To: The Coeditors of the Journal of Political Economy and Director of The University of Chicago Press

We, the undersigned, call for the resignation of Harald Uhlig, the Bruce Allen and Barbara Ritzenthaler Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, as the Lead Editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Prof. Uhlig's comments published on his blog (https://bit.ly/3cN0L97) and Twitter posts dated June 8th, trivializing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and drawing parallels between the BLM movement and the Ku Klux Klan, are outrageous and unacceptable. They hurt and marginalize people of color and their allies in the economics profession; call into question his impartiality in assessing academic work on this and related topics; and damage the standing of the economics discipline in society. We do not question the right of Prof. Uhlig to make such comments, but we are strongly opposed to him holding a position of power as the editor of a prominent journal in our discipline.

Signed by Richard Tol, Oliver Jehiel, Sharon Oster, Shelly Lundberg, Ivan Werning, David Cutler, Chris Blattman, Paul Goldsmith, Severin Borenstein, Arthur Silve, Andrew Atkeson, Scott Imberman, Jennifer Doleac, Justin Wolfers, Judith Chevalier,

Allyn Walker (Old Dominion, 2021)

A transgender university professor in Virginia has been placed on leave after defending pedophiles as 'Minor Attracted People' and saying they shouldn't be ostracized because they can't help their natural urges....Walker has written a book that tries to destigmatize pedophilia. It encourages people to refer to pedophiles as 'Minor Attracted People' and says they shouldn't be ostracized for their urges, which they can't help.... said that the online backlash had led to concerns for Walker's safety and that of the campus, and placing them on leave was the best course of action.

Wang,Norman (Pitt, Cardiology, 2020)

Wang published an article in 2020 on racial preferences in medicine which was attacked and retracted. He was then persecuted by his employer.

  • Wang lawsuit page, very good, Center for Individual Rights, which has links to opinion pieces and key legal documents.

Amy Wax (Penn Law)

  • "A statement from Dean Ruger in response to recent comments made by Professor Wax," (January 3, 2022). He calls her (collecting epithets), "thoroughly anti-intellectual, racist, perpetuating stereotypes placing differential burdens on Asian students, faculty, and staff xenophobic, white supremacist, and sexist." But he really likes to support people in his community and to include them: "This reality sharpens and deepens our commitment to support our community as we continue to work to advance equity and inclusion." What an idiot! His field is con law, naturally.



==Weingard, Bo (Marietta Psychology, fired 2019)

Weiss, Elizabeth (San Jose State Anthropology, bones)

"One victim of this mindset is physical anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss of San Jose State, who studies 500–3,000 year old bones from California. For simply studying those remains, Weiss was demoted by her university and banned from studying her department’s collection of bones. But it’s even worse: she’s not allowed to study X-rays of the remains or even show a photograph of the boxes in which they are kept." an article in the Skeptical Inquirer by Jerry Coyne.

Zimmerman, James (Nashville clarinet, 2021)

  • " How Racial Anxiety Conquered an Orchestra and Crushed a Career" Aaron Sibarium, Washington Free Beacon. A black oboeist on temp status because of his musicial weakness was hired by breaking the rules and not having fellow musicians vote on him. A clarinetist, James Zimmerman, who had advocated for his temporary trial and gotten him the job, was assigned to help him. He resented that, and with another musician, accused Zimmerman of stalking them and got Zimmerman fired. The Board boasted about it, and the Union refused to support him.

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