Professors in the School of Humanities at UCI have alleged that restrictions on academic freedom intensified after October 2023, particularly regarding discussions around Palestine.
Sharareh Frouzesh, a continuing lecturer in the Humanities Department, told New University that in more than 20 years of teaching, she has never experienced the level of repression and scrutiny that she’s encountered since October 2023. She stated that, “it’s very reminiscent of, you know, [the novel] 1984.”
“In all these years of teaching — one of which was in 2001, right after 9/11, 2002, I should say — I have never been told by the university what we can or cannot talk about. It has literally never been any kind of intervention in anything we’ve done in the classroom until about nearly three years ago,” Frouzesh told New University.
She also shared her experience with academic policing while hosting a podcast episode on Plato’s “Republic” for the 2024 Humanities Core (HumCore) cycle — a year-long course required for all honors and humanities students — where she served as a lecturer.
“I made a reference to a tweet that [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu had posted when, like, the same day that we happen to be recording that podcast, which had to do with representing the children of the darkness and the children of the light. So it had everything to do with the ‘Republic,’ so I brought it up.” Frouzesh said. “I was told that I need to take that reference out if I want my blog included with the rest of the blogs. I doubled down and refused because I thought it was important, and that free speech and academic integrity moved me to keep it in there.”
When she refused to make the edit, HumCore personnel made a separate website to upload the episode.
Frouzesh said the instruction to remove the section came from the individual responsible for managing the HumCore website; however, she believes this direction was not personal, and instead reflected the position of the program as a whole as it coincided with a program review.
According to Frouzesh, the topic of Palestine arose multiple times in HumCore faculty meetings in 2024. She recalled one instance in which a lecturing professor, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, made a comparison between the Boxers Rebellion in China and Hamas. According to Frouzesh, this exchange contributed to what she described as an atmosphere in which “there was a sense in the air that we should not be directly mentioning it in class.”
Wasserstrom told New University that he does not specifically remember making that comparison, though he noted that, “the analogy is possible.” He added that he did not receive direct restrictions on his course content, but did perceive a broader shift in the academic climate after October 2023.
Wasserstrom specializes in modern Chinese history, and said that’s why he is highly conscious of his course content. He emphasized that, for him and others, there is an expectation that the situation should be different in the United States.
“Say like, well, in the United States, I’m supposed to have these totally different rules of not being concerned about, political, certain words being problematic,” Wasserstrom said.
English Department Chair Professor Jonathan Alexander served as HumCore Program Director for the 2024 cycle.
“I think the climate around academic freedom in the program was extraordinarily supportive of a huge range of important and even controversial topics. Indeed, we collectively as a group, including seminar instructors, discussed the need to be sensitive to the highly volatile and very emotional situation during the student protest period, as well as the reality that not all of our students are going to agree on the issues at hand,” Alexander said in an email to New University.
“But no one was forbidden from talking about these issues,” Alexander said. “I myself referred to the encampment as a form of worldbuilding (our cycle’s theme) in one of my public lectures, and I know that other faculty referred directly to a range of then current topics in their lectures as well. Seminar instructors control how discussions unfold in their seminars.”
UCI’s Right of Free Speech and Academic Freedom website states that both rights are “essential and indispensable elements” of their goals as a public research university. In an article, academic freedom is defined as the rights of expression afforded specifically to faculty when they are engaged in their “professional activities.”
The website states that “the rights of expression associated with ‘academic freedom’ are inextricably linked to conformity with the prevailing norms of professional competence and ethical behavior.”
Despite these stated commitments, several faculty members at UCI described what they say is increasing scrutiny and policing of the topics they discuss both inside and outside the classroom.
The 2024 HumCore cycle coincided with nationwide college protests following the outbreak of violence in Gaza in October 2023 — including UCI. At UCI, pro-Palestine protesters established an encampment to demand divestment from companies associated with Israel and weapons manufacturing.
Numerous faculty members told New University that they believe much of the pressure on academic speech stems not only from administrative oversight, but also from a broader culture of surveillance. They pointed to instances of students reporting classroom speech they find offensive, as well as the increasing prevalence of classes being recorded, as possible factors contributing to a heightened sense of monitoring and self-censorship within the academic environment.
“I think that the sense of a kind of technological surveillance, both on the part of the university, but then maybe even more so on the part of students themselves, whether with bad intentions or not, makes people really anxious in ways that they maybe wouldn’t have been a few years ago,” Associate Professor of English Annie McClanahan told New University.
Wasserstrom shared a similar sentiment.
“It makes a difference that everybody has a cell phone and that everything you say could potentially be misinterpreted via social media,” Wasserstrom said.
In another case, Daniel Levine — a lecturer in the Religious Studies Department and rabbi for Hillel — did not have his contract to teach History 18A (Major Jewish Texts) renewed in May 2024. According to an archived version of an update regarding the situation, two tenure-track professors were hired to replace Levine. The update was later edited to remove any mention of Levine.
“Our decision not to renew his contract is due to the successful search and appointment of two new tenure-track faculty members as well as the consequent review of departmental curricular needs and practices,” the original statement reads.
UCI’s Jewish Studies Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Levine claims that politics were behind the non-renewal of his contract. He told New University that he believes Susan Morrissey, the head of the History Department at the time, was involved in “anti-Zionist activism,” and chose not to have his contract renewed because of Levine’s pro-Israel politics.
Morrissey did not respond to a request for comment.
“I had great teaching reviews, those are actually now public. The classes were always full, everything there. But in the end, I was not rehired right at the same time at the height of campus activism, the encampments that were here in spring of ‘24,” Levine said.
Levine shared that he never received direct answers from UCI about his contract.
McClanahan echoed the frustration with the university’s “occluded” process when it comes to such situations, stating that formal cases often become “adversarial and very bureaucratic” leaving faculty members — especially non-tenure and non-citizen faculty — vulnerable.
“The university is a space by which you get access to many different perspectives, many different ideas, many different frameworks, and that’s what makes it a magical space,” Frouzesh said. “It feels like that’s what they’re precisely flattening out in this model of control that’s happening.”
Areesha Hasan is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at hasanaf@uci.edu.
Edited by Annia Pallares zur Nieden and Geneses Navarro.
