A CALL OF CONSCIENCE NOT TO SPEAK AT ANY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA CAMPUSES UNTIL THE ADMINISTRATION REINSTATES ALL GRADUATE STUDENTS FIRED FOR STRIKE ACTIVITIES.
The case for a boycott is laid out in five points here.
We, the undersigned, will not give guest lectures or provide public speeches, either remotely or in person, at the University of California. We invite all signatories to reflect on other forms of protest and boycott they might employ.
This boycott should be honored until all graduate students fired for participating in the wildcat strike are reinstated and the administration vows that there will be no subsequent retaliation either against individual students or against their respective departments. However, since we strive to support individual academic laborers and to build possibilities for critical thought, exceptions will be made for lectures or visits related to departmental hiring practices.
The grading strike began when graduate workers removed their grades from Canvas, thereby withholding grades from the administration (but not from students). Part of the disciplinary process has focused on the obligation of faculty and TAs to use online tools such as Canvas and Zoom in ways mandated by the university. At one point, a “tattle-bot” was integrated onto Canvas so that undergraduate students could report “disruptions” in the curriculum that resulted from the strike directly to the administration. As we enter into an unprecedented time of online teaching, these issues are at the very heart of academic freedom and the struggles that we all face going forward.
On 28 February 2020, a number of graduate students who partook in this wildcat strike were terminated from their spring appointments; the total number of graduate workers fired is around 80. This includes international students and could lead to their deportation, thereby going against the campus’ declared commitment to protecting international students. In addition to losing their appointments and their income, all the fired students will lose their health insurance. In the midst of a global health pandemic, it is unconscionable that these students will be stripped of their health care and/or forced to relocate.
We therefore call upon our colleagues to join this very targeted academic boycott. We hope that this strategy can serve to rapidly shift the terrain, since the status quo currently favors the administration against student workers striking for their most basic of rights.
CURRENT SIGNATORIES (to sign on to this call, please click fill out this form or email adhoc4cola [at] gmail.com):
See this published Google Doc for the most up-to-date list.
Asma Abbas, Director of Advanced Studies and Associate Professor in Politics and Philosophy, Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Sadia Abbas, Associate Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Hosam Aboul-Ela, Associate Professor of English, University of Houston
Nadje Al-Ali, Robert Family Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies, Brown University
Anthony Alessandrini, Professor of English & Middle Eastern Studies, Kingsborough Community College-CUNY and the CUNY Graduate Center
Patricia Alessandrini, Assistant Professor, Department of Music and Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University
Lori Allen, Reader in Anthropology, SOAS, University of London
Eyal Amiran, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California-Irvine
Sinan Antoon, Associate Professor, New York University
Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
Cristina Bacchilega, Professor of English & Graduate Director, University of Hawai’i
Toby Beauchamp, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University
Daniel Benson, Assistant Professor of International Cultural Studies and Foreign Languages, St. Francis College
Anna Bernard, Senior Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature, King’s College London
Tithi Bhattacharya, Professor of History, Purdue University
Timothy Brennan, Samuel Russell Chair in the Humanities, Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature and English, University of Minnesota
Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Stephen Brier, Professor of Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center
Kylie Broderick, Graduate Student, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Melissa A. Brzycki, Assistant Professor of History, Monmouth University
Susan Buck-Morss, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
J. Mijin Cha, Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College
Sophie Chamas, Senior Teaching Fellow, SOAS, University of London
Piya Chatterjee, Professor of Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Scripps College, Claremont Consortium
Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Executive Director and Core Faculty in Social and Political Theory, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Zahid Chaudhury, Associate Professor of English, Princeton University
Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics, MIT
Samantha Christiansen, Assistant Professor of History, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Kandice Chuh, Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center
George Ciccariello-Maher, Visiting Scholar, Decolonizing Humanities Project, The College of William & Mary
Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
Altha Cravey, Associate Professor of Geography, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Carole Crumley, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Elyse Crystall, Teaching Associate Professor of English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ayça Çubukçu, Associate Professor in Human Rights and Co-Director of LSE Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science
Jocelyne Dakhlia, Directrice d’Etudes, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Monisha Das Gupta, Professor of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies, University of Hawaiʻi
Frank Deale, Professor, CUNY School of Law
Geneviève Dorais, Professeure d’histoire, Université du Québec à Montréal
Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis, New York University
Başak Ertür, Lecturer in Law and Co-Director of Birkbeck Centre for Law and the Humanities, Birkbeck, University of London
Eric Fassin, Professor of Sociology, Department of Gender Studies and Department of Political Science, Université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis
Roderick Ferguson, Yale University
Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, Women’s Studies, American Studies and Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center
Cynthia Franklin, Professor of English, University of Hawai’i
Candace Fujikane, Associate Professor, English Department, University of Hawaiʻi
Diane Fujino, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara
Libby Garland, Associate Professor of History, Kingsborough Community College
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
Richard Gilman-Opalsky, Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy, Political Science, University of Illinois
Bassam Haddad, Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor, Schar School for Policy and Government, George Mason University
Dyala Hamzah, Professeure agrégée, Département d’histoire, Université de Montréal
Michele Hardesty, Associate Professor of US Literatures & Cultural Studies, Hampshire College
Stefano Harney, Honorary Professor, University of British Columbia
David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY Graduate Center
Salah Hassan, Associate Professor of English, Michigan State University
Christina Heatherton, Assistant Professor of American Studies, Barnard College
Marc Lamont Hill, Professor of Media Studies and Urban Education, Temple University
Fredric Jameson, Professor of Literature, Duke University
Caren Kaplan, Professor Emerita of American Studies, University of California-Davis
Rebecca Karl, Professor of History, New York University
J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Professor of American Studies, Wesleyan University
Joseph Keith, Associate Professor of English, SUNY Binghamton University
Robin Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History, University of California-Los Angeles
Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics, Queen Mary University of London
Sherryl Kleinman, Emerita Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Troy Andreas Araiza Kokins, Lecturer in Latin American Studies, University of California-San Diego
Mark Lance, Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Justice and Peace, Georgetown University
Zachary Levenson, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Mark LeVine, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California-Irvine
Susana Loza, Associate Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Media Studies, Hampshire College
Simeon Man, Associate Professor of History, University of California at San Diego
James McDougall, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Trinity College, Oxford
Liz Montegary, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, SUNY Stony Brook University
Bill Mullen, Professor of English and American Studies, Purdue University
Donna Murch, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University
Premilla Nadasen, Professor of History, Barnard College
Don Nonini, Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Mimi Thi Nguyen, Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Hussein Omar, Assistant Professor, University College Dublin
A. Naomi Paik, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Michael Palm, Associate Professor of Communication and AAUP Chapter President, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, Stanford University (PhD, UC Berkeley)
Nicola Pratt, Associate Professor of International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, UK
Tiana Reid, Graduate Student Worker, Department of English & Comparative Literature, Columbia University
John Rieder, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Hawai‘i
Boots Riley, Filmmaker, Performer, and Activist
Beth Robinson, Assistant Professor of History, Texas A & M University – Corpus Christi
Dylan Rodríguez, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of California at Riverside
Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
Sandrine Sanos, Professor of Modern European History, Texas A & M University – Corpus Christi
Nadya Sbaiti, Assistant Professor, Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, American University Beirut
Naomi Schiller, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, CUNY
Malini Johar Schueller, Professor of English, University of Florida
Michael Schwalbe, Professor of Sociology, North Carolina State University
Zach Schwartz-Weinstein, Bard Prison Initiative
S. Shankar, Professor of English, University of Hawai‘i
Naoko Shibusawa, Associate Professor of American Studies/Ethnic Studies, Brown University
Ella Shohat, Professor of Art & Public Policy and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, New York University
Eric Smoodin, Professor of American Studies, University of California-Davis
Robyn C. Spencer, Associate Professor of History, Lehman College-CUNY and the CUNY Graduate Center
Rei Terada, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California-Irvine
Jeanne Theoharis, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College
Molly Todd, Associate Professor of History, Montana State University
Alejandro Velasco, Associate Professor of History, New York University
Françoise Vergès, Former Global South(s) Chair, FMSH, Paris, Public Educator, Decolonial Feminist Activist
Dana Ward, Professor Emeritus, Pitzer College (UC Berkeley ’71)
Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard University; Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Catherine Zimmer, Adjunct Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Elizabeth Bishop, Core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, Université d’Oran 2
Camara Starks, Student, Santa Ana College
Maria DeGuzman, Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Dina Al-Kassem, Professor, University of British Columbia
Adam Miyashiro, Associate Professor of Literature, Stockton University
Angela Naimou, Associate Professor of English, Clemson University
Roxanne Panchasi, Associate Professor, Simon Fraser University
Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
Nabil Al-Tikriti, Associate Professor, Department of History & American Studies, University of Mary Washington
Andrew Pope, Lecturer, Committee on Degrees in History & Literature, Harvard University
Keri Leigh Merritt, Independent Scholar-Historian
Jacob Lee, Assistant Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University
Pete Moore, M.A. Hanna Associate Professor of Politics, Case Western Reserve University
Richard Anderson, Postdoctoral Scholar, Pennsylvania State University
Shannan Clark, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Montclair State University
Caroline Grego, Visiting Assistant Professor, Queens University of Charlotte
Todd Shepard, Arthur O. Lovejoy Professor, Johns Hopkins
Anne-Marie Angelo, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Sussex (UK)
Lucia Hulsether, Assistant Professor, Skidmore College
Osamah F. Khalil, Assoc. Professor, History, Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (PhD, UC Berkeley, 2011)
Wendy Craig, Assistant Dean, retired
Trenton Coleman, UCI Alumni
Philip Grant, PhD, Sociocultural Anthropology, UC Irvine (2012)
Hunter Bivens, Literature, UCSC
Dana Francisco Miranda, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Muhlenberg College
Dawson Barrett, Associate Professor, Del Mar College
Christina Sharpe, Professor, York University (Canada)
Hugh McDonnell, Assistant Professor of European Politics, Literature and Culture, University of Groningen
John Rufo, Graduate Student Worker, CUNY Graduate Center
Alexander G. Weheliye, Professor of African American Studies, Northwestern University
Dmitri Nikulin, Professor of Philosophy, The New School for Social Research
Pierre Bélanger, Landscape Architect, OPEN SYSTEMS
Aren Aizura, Associate Professor in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, University of
Minnesota
Drew Flanagan, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford
Peter Hill, Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow, Northumbria University (UK)
William Horne, Postdoc, Villanova University
Naomi Walzer, Student undergrad
Christopher Breu, Professor of English, Illinois State University
Bret Benjamin, Associate Professor, University at Albany, SUNY
Colin Dayan, Professor, Vanderbilt University
Ricardo A. Bracho, Writer
Kiana Borjian, Student in solidarity
Craig Willse, former associate professor
Lauren Berlant, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor University of Chicago
Neferti Tadiar, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University
Chad Shomura, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver
Eric Covey, Visiting Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Lucien Baskin, Student, City University of New York
Bryant W. Sculos, Visiting Assistant Professor, Dept. of History & Political Science, Worcester State University
Richard Grusin, Director, C21, UW-Milwaukee
Elizabeth Ferrari, UCB Class of 1987 L&S
Ronald Williams II, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Kelly L Sears, Assistant Professor
Lisa Kahaleole Hall, Associate Professor and Director, Indigenous Studies, University of Victoria
Albert Ponce, Professor of Political Science & Social Justice, Diablo Valley College
Lilia Soro, Associate Professor, University of Wyoming
Ron Smith, Associate Professor, Bucknell University
Kimberly Drake, Associate Professor, Scripps College
Dorothy Kim, Assistant Professor of English, Brandeis University
Jack Jackson, Assistant Professor of Politics, Whitman College
Erin Brady, Assistant Professor, Indiana University
Danielle Seid, Assistant Professor, Baruch College
Melanie Richter-Montpetit, Assistant Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for Advanced International Theory, University of Sussex
Donatella Izzo, Professor of American Literature, “L’Orientale” University, Naples, Italy
Nada Elia, WWU
Martha Copp, Professor, East Tennessee State University
Lauren Parsons Muller, Professor, City College of San Francisco
Jacob Mundy, Associate Professor, Colgate University
Daniel Altshuler, Assistant professor, Hampshire College
Mauro Resmini, Assistant Professor of Film Studies and Italian, University of Maryland
S. Charusheela, Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, UW Bothell
Kirstine Taylor, Assistant Professor, Ohio University
Allison McCracken, Associate Professor, American Studies, DePaul University
Sean Cashbaugh, Lecturer, Princeton Writing Program, Princeton University
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor, Columbia University
Amanda E. Rogers, NEH Visiting Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
Ian M Hartshorn, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UNR
Samantha Knapton, Lecturer at University of East Anglia, UK
Aram Shabanian, MA Candidate in Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department, Georgetown University
Kamran Rastegar, Professor, Tufts University
Sam Bowden, PhD candidate Rutgers University
Avital Ronell, University Professor of the Humanities, New York University
Peter Magnuson, Independent Researcher
Anna Campbell, Assistant Professor, UW-Madison
Megan Hyska, Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department, Northwestern University
Tiffany Dang, PhD Candidate, University of Cambridge
Morwan Osman, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
Tania Lizarazo, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Marcos Balter, Associate Professor, Cali School of Music, Montclair State University
Didem Ertem, Student
Chloe Avery, Graduate Student, University of Chicago
Stephanie DeGooyer, Associate Professor, Willamette University /Visiting Professor, Harvard University
Eli Meyerhoff, Visiting Scholar at Duke University
Siddhartha Deb, Writer, The New School
Pilar Alvarez, Professor of Spanish, Emerita, California State University, Chico
Amanda Armstrong, Assistant Professor of History, Fordham University
Ravi Arvind Palat, Professor of Sociology, Binghamton University
Murtaza Batla, Providence
Sophie Kurland, Undergraduate Student at UCSC
Marco Durazo, Alumni, UCLA
Kristen Hatch, Associate Professor, Visual Studies Program/Film & Media Studies, UC Irvine
Barbara Foley, Distinguished Professor of English, Rutgers University-Newark
Sayres Rudy, PhD Politics Columbia
Ana Maria Candela, Assistant Professor, Binghamton University
Manuel Schwab, Assistant Professor in Sociology, Egyptology, and Anthropology at American University in Cairo
Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, Assistant Professor, Grinnell College
Kate Doyle Griffiths, Brooklyn College
Charles Post, Professor, Sociology BMCC and the Graduate Center-City University of New York
Abigail Boggs, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Wesleyan University
Jerome Whitington, New York University (UC Berkeley PhD 2008)
Magdalene Kate Moy, Drexel University
Ian Fleishman, Assistant Professor of German and Cinema & Media Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Oyku Tekten, PhD Student, English Department, The Graduate Center
Magalí Rabasa, Assistant Professor, Lewis and Clark College
Corinne Teed, Assistant Professor, Art, University of Minnesota
Jason McGraw, Associate Professor of History, Indiana University
Nataly Escobedo Garcia, Graduate Student, University of California, Irvine
John D Márquez, Associate Professor, Northwestern University
Sarah Zimmerman, Western Washington University (UC Berkeley PhD 2011)
Emily Lyons, Adjunct Professor, University of Arizona
Jean Lee, Assistant Professor of English, Western Washington University
Wendy Matsumura, Associate Professor, UC San Diego
Raj Chetty, Assistant Professor, San Diego State University
Ashon Crawley, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African American Studies, University of Virginia
Christoph Hanssmann, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University
Jed Murr, Senior Lecturer, American & Ethnic Studies, Cultural Studies, University of Washington Bothell
Lissette Tatiana Olivares, Visiting Instructor, Pratt Institute
Paula Ioanide, Associate Professor, Ithaca College
Isabel Montanez, Distinguished Professor of Geosciences, University of California, Davis
Yumi Pak, Assistant Professor, Department of English, CSU San Bernardino
Jessica Levy, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Virginia
Bob Buzzanco, Professor
Francisco Gonzalez Camelo, Adjunct Professor BMCC-CUNY
Stephen Sheehi, Sultan Qaboos Professor of Middle East Studies, William & Mary
Christa Salamandra, Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College, CUNY
Timothy J. Reiss, Emeritus Professor, New York University; Visiting Scholar, University of Hawai’i-Manoa
Greta LaFleur, Associate Professor of American Studies, Yale University
Judith Norman, Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University, San Antonio TX
Katherine Gillen, Associate Professor of English, Texas A&M-San Antonio
Michelle Eirini Padley, Graduate Student in the Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Alexa Firat, Assistant Professor of Arabic Studies, Temple University
Helen H. Jun, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
Lilly Irani, Associate Professor, Communication & Computer Science, UC San Diego
Noura Erakat, Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
Sean Leah Bowden, Doctor of Musical Arts, UC San Diego
Marcelo Flores Lazcano, PhD in Music Composition, UCSD 2018
Lauren Hayes, Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Media + Engineering, Arizona State University
Alissa Lund, Theater Arts Alumna Class of 2010
Rumman Chowdhury, PhD, UCSD. Responsible AI lead, Accenture
Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn, Researcher, Leiden University
Susan Anderson
Iván Ferrer, Freelance Composer
Michael Zbyszyński, Lecturer: Goldsmiths, University of London. UCB alumni, PhD 2000
Tom DePaola, Researcher, Pullias Center for Higher Education, USC
James Best, Lecturer, California State University Dominguez Hills
Robert Warrior, Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture, University of Kansas
Jessica Hatrick, USC PhD Student at Annenberg School for Communication
Bonnie Burns Price, Retired professor