Today’s Briefing:
Classics professor Joshua Katz has filed a lawsuit alleging that the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), a federation of 75 scholarly organizations, retracted his invitation to serve as one of the society’s delegates to a prominent international conference after he wrote a controversial op-ed last July.
Katz is seeking unspecified monetary compensation on the basis that the organization’s actions caused him “substantial damage, lessened his reputation, and reduced his potential for future advancement.” In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, an ACLS spokesperson wrote that “through the judicial process, ACLS will vigorously defend the claims that Dr. Katz initiated.”
Last July, Katz drew controversy when he published an op-ed in Quillette denouncing a letter signed by more than 350 Princeton faculty members calling on President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 and senior administrators to enact 48 anti-racist demands. In the op-ed, Katz called a disbanded student activist group, the Black Justice League, a “local terrorist organization.”
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On Thursday, a memo instructed Princeton faculty and staff to prepare for an in-person fall semester in 2021. According to the letter, the goal is to get students back to classrooms, but some public health restrictions may remain in place. As a COVID-19 precaution, most summer programs will remain virtual. Thursday’s memo came from Provost Deborah Prentice and Executive Vice President Treby Williams ’84.
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Several University faculty members have recently helped establish the Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA), a non-profit organization that seeks to uphold “the principle of free speech in academia.” Notable members include Professor of Politics Keith E. Whittington, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer, and Classics Professor Joshua Katz.
“We are committed to providing defense to members of the organization if they find themselves in a free speech or academic freedom controversy,” said Whittington, the appointed Academic Committee Chair of the organization.
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Chair of the African American Studies (AAS) Department Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. GS ’97, won the 2021 Stowe Prize for his most recent book, titled Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own. According to a statement released by the AAS department, “The Stowe Prize recognizes a distinguished book of general adult fiction or non-fiction that illuminates a critical social justice issue in contemporary society in the United States.”
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