In Defense of Academic Freedom Session 10
The Frontlines of Educator Resistance
Featuring:
Peggy Wang
Nic Francisco-Kaho’onei
Moderators:
Anna Feder
Bassam Haddad
Organized by DC, Maryland, & Virginia Faculty for Academic Freedom and Gaza in Conrtext Collaborative Project; Cosponsored by MESA Task Force on Civil and Human Rights, MESA's Committee on Academic Freedom, Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network (140+ chapters nationally)
Friday, 24 October 2025 | 1:00 PM EST
The assault on academic freedom is intensifying on University campuses. This series takes note of cases of defamation, intimidation, and suspension that faculty are being subjected to in the United States and beyond. We aim to raise awareness regarding the conditions and pretenses under which such violations occur.
In this session, we had the opportunity to hear the stories of faculty under attack at our institutions, but the stories of staff facing repression are harder to come by. With many university staff workers lacking the union representation and protections that some faculty and grad workers may have, they can be more vulnerable to intimidation from exercising free speech and protest rights by university managements/administrations.
Join academics, activists, and educators to discuss how we organize workers across positions in higher education and K-12 in advance of the school year to push back against the repression at our institutions. We will discuss a variety of tactics, including leveraging internal processes with the support of unions, legal avenues, public pressure campaigns, and boycotts.
This event is Co-Sponsored by the Gaza in Context Collaborative Project
Featuring
Peggy Wang is a union activist and a member of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and of the Independent Socialist Group. She works as an animation studio manager at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, MA. She was put on leave by MassArt administration in early May for participating in a pro-Palestinian protest on campus on her own time. While she’s been brought back to work thanks to the efforts of her union, members of other unions, students, community supporters, and members of ISG and other left activists, her coworker who was also put on leave over attending the same protest was unfortunately fired. MassArt administration continues to threaten Peggy through intimidating measures and hyper-surveillance.
Nic Francisco-Kaho’onei (they/them) is a mixed-race Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) activist-scholar and social justice educator with over 13 years of experience teaching in Ethnic Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Political Science, and Human Sexuality, as well as working in Student Affairs. In spring 2025, Nic was fired from their role as Director of the Women’s Resource Center at Portland State University, given a “no cause” termination notice. This choice by the institution can be understood as retaliation meant to silence those organizing for Palestinian liberation. Nic’s scholarship and organizing are rooted in prison abolition, queer and feminist liberation, and anti-colonial struggle. They continue to work with groups such as Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and the Disarm and Divest Coalition, building movements that confront U.S. militarism, corporate profiteering, and state repression on campus and beyond. As a Kanaka Maoli person, Nic grounds their politics in the struggle against stolen land, colonial violence, and the ongoing fight for sovereignty, connecting that history to the global demand for Palestinian freedom. Their work toward liberation is grounded in the belief that no one is free until everyone is free, and by Audre Lorde’s poignant reminder that your silence will not protect you.
Bassam Haddad is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Executive Producer of Status Podcast Channel and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding The Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).