(JFP1) Speaking of Palestine: Issues of Academic Freedom and Reprisal
This session seeks to map and explore struggles of academics who stand with Palestine and Palestinians in the context of rising anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on Canadian campuses since October 7, 2023. A recent report by faculty members of York University, Toronto provides a comprehensive overview of the routine practices of silencing, intimidation and surveillance that stand in opposition to both standards of equity and academic freedom. This session aims to provide a wider platform for exploring these issues across Canadian campuses. We are particularly interested in bearing witness to and documenting experiences of silencing, chilling, doxing, reprisal, and other punitive measures mobilized against pro-Palestinian academics and student organizers, including but not limited to the use of administrative, risk management, complaint, and other procedures to cancel events, thwart evidence-based discussion, and mute pro-Palestine dissent in academic spaces. We also experiences of episodic despair and hope in the face of paramount racism and repression.