MESA has been building out the Academic Freedom Initiative (AFI), a project funded by the Mellon Foundation, to identify and track trends regarding academic freedom and repression on campuses across North America. Two initial datasets focus on recent immigration actions affecting higher education, and adverse employment outcomes for university employees since October 2023.
MESA's Task Force has created a new advocacy resource center for our members to consult in response to the repression of rights on campuses across North America and beyond.
A federal judge has ruled that the case of AAUP v. Rubio can move forward. The lawsuit alleges that the administration’s ideological-deportation policy violates the First Amendment by targeting constitutionally protected speech that Americans have a right to hear and engage with.
Our letter condemning the last-minute cancellation of a keynote lecture that was to be given by Professor Eman Abdelhadi, purportedly on grounds of security.
Our letter expressing concern about the University of Colorado-Boulder’s apparent failure to meaningfully respond to a physical assault committed on campus against students advocating for Palestinian rights
Our letter expressing concern about the termination of Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi, deputy director of Yale University’s Law and Political Economy Project and associate research scholar at Yale Law School, in the wake of allegations made on an obscure website whose founders and contributors are anonymous
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) today filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in their lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members who participate in pro-Palestinian protests and other protected First Amendment activities.
Our letter expressing concern about Harvard University’s decision to remove Professor Cemal Kafadar and Associate Professor Rosie Bsheer as, respectively, director and associate director of the university’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) today filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members who participate in pro-Palestinian protests and other protected First Amendment activities.
Our letter expressing outrage about the letter dated 13 March 2025 that was sent to you by three Trump administration officials, and to urge you to respond in a principled and forceful manner to the unprecedented, unacceptable and extreme demands that it sets forth
Our letter expressing concern about the decision of the Board of Directors of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture to cancel a planned issue of the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE) focused on Palestine. We are equally disturbed by the board’s termination of JAE Interim Executive Editor McLain Clutter for protesting this decision.
Our letter expressing grave concern about Governor Hochul’s unprecedented demand that Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) take down a posted advertisement for a new open-rank position in the field of Palestinian Studies
Our letter expressing concern about the decision of MIT’s Department of Linguistics and Philosophy to deny Professor Michel DeGraff permission to offer a proposed course on language, linguistics and decolonization in Israel/Palestine
Our letter expressing concern about the suspension of Umaymah Mohammad, a student from the Emory University School of Medicine, for a statement that she made during a media interview that was deemed in violation of the student code of conduct.
Our letter expressing concern about the flawed disciplinary proceedings involving Dr. Katherine Franke and the circumstances surrounding her “retirement.”
The Middle East Studies Association, the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, the Orient Institute in Beirut are organizing a five-day workshop at the American University of Cairo, June 29-July 3. The workshop, which is co-sponsored by AUC, will bring together a select group of doctoral students from North American, German, and Arab universities to discuss the possibilities, critical approaches, epistemological, and practical challenges of undertaking archival and/or ethnographic research in the Arab region.
Our letter expressing concern about recent actions that have exacerbated the climate of repression on campus
The Committee on Academic Freedom received a response from the Interim President of Cornell University in response to our 26 November letter regarding a course proposal developed by Dr. Eric Cheyfitz
Our letter expressing concern about the negative comments recently made regarding a course proposal developed by Dr. Eric Cheyfitz
Our letter expressing concern about the recent disciplinary action by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) against one of its doctoral students, Prahlad Iyengar.
Our letter expressing concern about the flawed disciplinary proceedings involving a number of its students that Swarthmore College is currently conducting
Our letter expressing concern about the decision of the University of Minnesota administration to indefinitely suspend eight students who participated in an occupation of a university building
Our letter expressing concern about Harvard University’s decision to ban a number of undergraduate students, law students and faculty from entering Harvard University’s libraries
Our letter expressing concern about the general atmosphere of repression on Claremont campuses as well as specific instances of repression at Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College, and Scripps College.
MESA’s Academic Freedom Initiative will support data collection and analysis as well as dissemination of findings regarding academic freedom in the context of scholarship and teaching in Middle East studies.