Targeting Dr. Tamar Shirinian for termination on unjust grounds

The Academic Council of Jewish Voice for Peace* joins a wide range of associations and individuals in objecting to the termination of Dr. Tamar Shirinian’s appointment as faculty at the University of Tennessee. Her remarks on her personal Facebook account regarding the surviving family members of Charlie Kirk may have caused offense and for this she has amply apologized. To use those remarks, however, as the basis for her termination not only violates her First Amendment Rights to express such positions freely but degrades faculty rights of employment under the current contractual conditions of your university.  It also fails to afford a fair review of the criticism against her expression untainted by political partisanship.  Her speech, intemperate as it was, never delivered a threat of violence against anyone in his family, and did not celebrate his death.  They reflected her views on how his views on masculinity had produced a hostile environment for those who heard his words.  Her expression fits squarely under the rubric of constitutionally protected expressive conduct. She expressed no more than sentiments about Kirk’s passing.  That those sentiments are not shared with others in no way takes away their status as expressive sentiments attached to no threat to do harm.  We urge you to reverse your decision and reinstate Dr. Shirinian immediately. 

Dr. Shirinian’s status as a scholar has no bearing on whether or not she should be terminated on the basis of her expressive conduct on social media. No one should be terminated on the basis of the evidence considered.  But it is worth pointing out that the University of Tennessee, were it to maintain its decision to terminate her employment, would be losing is a highly respected scholar and a beloved teacher as it gives way to political winds of censorship and intemperate calls for termination.  Dr. Shirinian’s book, Survival of a Perverse Nation: Morality and Queer Possibility in Armenia (Duke University Press), just won a top prize in the field of Anthropology: the Ruth Benedict Prize.

Expressive speech on political matters outside the classroom is considered protected speech under the American Academy of University Professors’ Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom, which have been applied throughout academia since 1940. Furthermore, the AAUP’s governing understanding of academic freedom and free speech directly implies that Dr. Shrinian’s First Amendment rights to free speech were not renounced with her employment and must be respected and upheld by universities who upheld the role of constitutional law within democratic societies. 

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s own campus’ policy of “viewpoint neutrality” implies the same conclusion.  Your institution has stated that viewpoint neutrality “is not intended to limit the speech of the University’s community acting or speaking as individuals in their own names and not in the name of the university.” Furthermore, as a public university governed by federal law, the institution is legally restrained from suppressing or restricting faculty speech on matters of public disagreement and debate. The Fourteenth Amendment is, in fact, mirrored in the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s own faculty handbook, which holds that a public employee cannot be disciplined or dismissed without fair notice, a clear statement of charges, and an opportunity for review, which includes the right to respond. These procedures have not been followed in this case that has been accelerated by a social media campaign lacking in moderation and not based on policy and law.

We are especially concerned that Dr. Shirinian has been targeted on the basis of her political views, including her support for the Palestinian struggle for freedom. We urge you to respect her constitutional rights and the terms that have underwritten her employment.  She has broken no law with her expressive conduct and has neither intended nor inflicted violence.

We urge university leadership to immediately cease these termination proceedings in the interest of upholding its own stated values, values of democracy and free speech. 

We urge you to re-instate Dr. Shirinian expeditiously and to accept the apology she has offered for her intemperate words.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jonah Rubin, JVP Sr. Manager of Campus Organizing, on behalf of the Academic Council

* Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Council is a network of scholars dedicated to furthering JVP’s vision and values https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org. Drawing upon our shared commitment to both progressive Jewish values and Palestinian liberation, we organize in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle in educational and academic settings. We draw upon our skills as scholars, educators, and writers to develop critical analysis of contemporary censorship on Palestine. We oppose the deployment of the charge of antisemitism to censor or criminalize speech critical of the State of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.  We defend employment rights, academic freedom, and rights of association within higher education and confirm the core values of Jewish Voice for Peace.