This info just in: Steve will be visiting the Chicago area in early October for a series of talks! We will update this post with more details as we get them. Don’t miss your chance to hear from Steven, an engaging and interesting speaker!
During the recent Israeli slaughter of over 2000 people in Gaza, Professor Steven Salaita bravely spoke out against this barbaric assault and in defense of Palestine.For this, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees purged him from his tenured position, in direct violation of basic norms of academic freedom.
Now Professor Salaita is going on the offensive – against academic censorship, and against the continuing colonial domination of the Palestinian people that this censorship aims to cover for. Join us as Steven Salaita speaks at six Chicago area campuses ––
** Monday, October 6 – Northwestern University’s Evanston campus, 5 PM (location TBA).
** Tuesday, October 7 – University of Chicago, early evening (specific time & location TBA).
** Wednesday, October 8 – Columbia College, 7 PM, 600 S. Michigan Ave, Room 101, Ferguson Lecture Hall.
** Thursday, October 9 – DePaul University, 4 PM (location TBA).
** Thursday, October 9 – Loyola University, 7 PM (location TBA).
** Friday, October 10 – University of Illinois at Chicago, 3 PM. Lecture Center C4 (enter the main doors of UIC’s student Center East located at 750 S. Halsted Street, continue to walk straight through and out the building. Lecture Center C4 will be on the right.)
More information about Steven’s tour will be posted here as it becomes available.
Both Steven and his wife, Diana, quit their positions at Virginia Tech when he was recruited to join the U of I at their Champaign-Urbana campus’s American Indian Studies Program. They sold their home and prepared to start their new life in Illinois – until Chancellor Phyllis Wise and, according to FOIA’d documents, wealthy U of I donors stepped in to rescind the appointment [http://coreyrobin.com/2014/09/02/reading-the-salaita-papers/].
“As a result, my family has no income, no health insurance, and no home of our own,” said Steven. “Our young son has been left without a preschool. I have lost the great achievement of a scholarly career – lifetime tenure, with its promised protections of academic freedom.”
Here’s what you can do to help:
1) Help us give Steven an honorarium worthy of the academic courage that he has shown in his defense of Palestine.
To donate via PayPal, go to http://gayliberation.net/donate.html, click the PayPal link at the bottom of the text, type “Steven Salaita” where it says “Enter description,” and then choose the amount of your donation. To donate by check, make your check payable to “GLN,” write “Steve Salaita” in the memo section, and mail it to GLN, P O Box 409204, Chicago, IL 60640.
All proceeds will go to provide an honorarium to Professor Salaita, and in so doing, say that the U of I board does NOT speak for most Illinoisans!
2) Get your student, religious or community organization to formally endorse Professor Salaita’s speaking tour. To do so, please email LGBTliberation@aol.com
3) Please sign the petition to reinstate Professor Salaita, and share it widely: http://www.change.org/p/phyllis-m-wise-we-demand-corrective-action-on-the-scandalous-firing-of-palestinian-american-professor-dr-steven-salaita
And,
4) Share this message widely on social media and list serves, and get others to attend Steven’sOctober 6 – 10 events!
Thank you!
Sponsored by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Columbia College, DePaul University, Loyola University and the University of Illinois/Chicago, and the multi-issue LGBT organization Gay Liberation Network.
We invite other organizations to endorse Steven’s tour. For more information, emailLGBTliberation@aol.com
Support Steven Salaita 