Voices Under Siege: Free Speech, Islamophobia, and Palestine in Academia

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh

Description:
This event aims to address the critical issues of free speech, Islamophobia, and the challenges faced by pro-Palestine voices in academic institutions. The conversation will focus on the current state of academia and its role in promoting or stifling open dialogue on contentious issues. Scholars will shed light on how pro-Palestine voices are being marginalized and their free speech rights violated within academic settings. Additionally, they will explore the intersection of Islamophobia and the suppression of pro-Palestine voices.

Speakers:
Dr. Bruce Robbins is Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. He previously taught at the universities of Geneva and Lausanne as well as Rutgers University. His most recent books are Atrocity: A Literary History (forthcoming from Stanford in 2025) and Criticism and Politics: A Polemical Introduction (also Stanford, 2022), The Beneficiary (Duke, 2017), and Cosmopolitanisms, co-edited with Paulo Horta (NYU, 2017). He is the director of two documentaries, “Some of My Best Friends Are Zionists” and “What Kind of Jew Is Shlomo Sand?”

Professor Sahar Aziz is distinguished professor of law, Middle East Legal Studies Scholar, and Chancellor’s Social justice Scholar at Rutgers University Law School. Professor Aziz’s scholarship examines the intersection of national security, race, religion, and civil rights with a focus on the adverse impact of national security laws and policies on racial, religious, and ethnic minorities. She is the author of the book The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom and the founding director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights. Professor Aziz was a visiting professor at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and School of Public and International Affairs. She was also a visiting scholar at Columbia University Center for Gender and Sexuality Law

Dr. John L. Esposito: is Distinguished University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, John L. Esposito is Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Esposito has served as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, European and Asian governments and corporations, universities, and the media worldwide. He is a former President of the American Academy of Religion, the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, Vice Chair of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, and member of the E. C. European Network of Experts on De-Radicalisation and Board of Directors of the C-1 World Dialogue.