WGSS Faculty Letter in Support of UC Students' Right to Free Expression

Dear UC Students,  

We, core and affiliate faculty of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Cincinnati, are acutely aware of the long history of protest and resistance that has shaped our field, often led by students and Black, POC, and Indigenous queer feminist activists. The important role that students’ political activism plays in changing the academic and social landscape is thus not lost on us.  

From its origins, our interdisciplinary field demands a commitment to anti-racist, anti-colonial education and academic freedom. We see it as our duty to support actions that align with these commitments, including the right of students to collectively dissent against the violence of settler-colonialism and genocide.  

As students and faculty around the country join in solidarity with Palestinians and in protest against occupation, university administrations have responded with force. In Ohio, students at Case Western, Ohio State, and Miami Universities have set up encampments on their college campuses. In response, administrators on these campuses have threatened students with expulsion, sent police to break up the protests, and even directed snipers at students. We vehemently oppose these actions.  

While no such encampments have occurred at UC, we know that many of you have joined campus and city-wide protests here and elsewhere. As feminist educators, we care deeply for the wellbeing of our students. We support your efforts to make your perspectives known and recognize protests and public demonstrations as a legitimate form of expression to call attention to your demands. We also recognize that university administrations’ use of militarized armed forces and academic sanctions to silence students and faculty are worrying indications of attacks on free speech and academic freedom. 

To those students who have put their bodies on the line in protest and solidarity with Palestinians, we see you. In the tradition of those that came before us, we support your rights to protest, take part in popular education, and express your views both in and out of the classroom. To those who remain confused, uncertain, and in search of answers, we welcome your questions and quest for knowledge. We see it as our duty to help you find answers to your questions with care and in the service of creating more just worlds.  

 

Signed,   

 

Anima Adjepong, Associate Professor, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 

Chandra Frank, Assistant Professor, WGSS

Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, Associate Professor, Anthropology 

C. Jeff Jacobson Jr., Professor, Anthropology

Valerie Weinstein, Professor, Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality  Studies 

Cassandra Jones, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies

Alexander Thurston, Associate Professor, School of Public and International Affairs 

Annulla Linders, Associate Professor, Sociology

RJ Boutelle, Assistant Professor, English

Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown, Assistant Professor Sociology 

Amy Lind, Mary Ellen Heintz Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Erynn Masi de Casanova, Professor, Sociology

Carolyn Peterson, Educator Associate Professor, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Joanna Huh, Assistant Professor, English

Dr. Anne Runyan, Professor Emerita, School of Public and International Affairs and WGSS Affiliate

Frederic, Educator Professor /Retired/Emeritus OSU/UC, RALL

Thérèse Migraine-George, Professor, RALL

Nimisha Bhat, Librarian, UC Libraries

Anjuliet Woodruffe, Post Doctoral Fellow, Taft Research Center

Evan Torner, Associate Professor, AEGS / SCFMS