Please click here to add your name

Dear President Alivisatos and Provost Baicker,

We write to you as concerned members of the scholarly community here at the university. The actions taken by the new Trump administration represent a clear political intrusion on the academic autonomy of our research and teaching activities. There is no ambiguity in the university’s policies about how it ought to relate to such intrusion. Per the Kalven Report,  “From time to time instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry. In such a crisis, it becomes the obligation of the university as an institution to oppose such measures and actively to defend its interests and its values.” We note the characterization here of the university’s role as an “obligation” and the characterization of executing this obligation as “active defense.” We believe it is clear what such an active defense entails in the present moment:

• The university has chosen to admit students and hire instructors and researchers on their academic merit whom the federal government may now seek to target for retribution, criminalization, or deportation, based on ideological criteria of no appropriate concern to the university. Although we recognize that the university must comply with all court orders, the university has no obligation to provide information or other assistance to immigration authorities that is not mandated by subpoena or judicial order. We ask that the university publicly confirm that it will not cooperate with immigration authorities or with requests for information about students, faculty, and staff that are not strictly required by law.

• The university has chosen to establish programs of scientific research based on their scholarly promise, and must continue to support such programs even if the federal government cuts their funding for politically-motivated reasons. We ask that the university publicly commit to providing stopgap funding for federally-funded grants that may be blocked, frozen, cut, or canceled by the Trump administration, especially in instances where faculty, staff, contractors, and/or students will not be paid.

• The university has chosen to commit itself strongly to protection of freedom of thought and expression, and is justifiably proud of its ideologically diverse community. In line with these commitments, the university may not comply with federal pressure to designate certain political ideologies as inherently discriminatory. We ask the university to publicly commit that it will reject any efforts to equate political disagreement with religious, racial, or national discrimination, and that it will also not share the names or contact information of students, staff, or faculty based on their perceived or actual political opinions or affiliations. Even in the event of a university disciplinary proceeding or an encounter with the University of Chicago Police, the university must not willingly volunteer members of its own community for additional ideological targeting and retaliation by higher political powers.

• The university has chosen to establish a range of centers and programs focused on areas of the world or historical, social, and individual experiences that have been made sites of political controversy (colonialism, race, gender, sexuality). These decisions have been based in all cases on scholarly discussion and scholarly consensus. The university’s free speech and academic freedom principles mean that support for these programs, or others which may be targeted in similar ways, cannot now be made dependent on shifting ideological preferences, or on a desire to preserve federal funding. We ask that the university commit to refuse all pressure to disinvest from or otherwise disavow or stigmatize these units in any way.
  

All of the above particular obligations flow clearly from the singular obligation described in the Kalven Report. We recognize that to meet these obligations will not be easy, and we stand ready as a community to defend our institution when it defends us, by all the means it has at its disposal. 

Sincerely,

Gabriel Winant, Associate Professor of History and the College, AAUP chapter president

Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor of Mathematics, AAUP chapter past president

Veronica Vegna, Senior Instructional Professor in RLL, AAUP chapter executive committee member

William Sites, Associate Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, AAUP chapter stewards’ council chair

Mehnroush Soroush, Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures/Middle Eastern Studies, AAUP chapter executive committee member

Danielle Aubert, Professor of Practice in the Arts, English Language and Literature, AAUP chapter treasurer

Bożena Shallcross, Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures

Matthew Harris, Assistant Professor, Divinity School, AAUP chapter executive committee member

Whitney Cox, Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations

William Schweiker, Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics, The Divinity School and the College

Eugene Raikhel, Associate Professor, Comparative Human Development

Philip Bohlman, Distinguished Service Professor, Music, TAPS

Jennifer Mosley, Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Richard Strier, Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, English

Matthew M. Briones, Associate Professor, History

Christopher Kennedy,, William H. Colvin Professor, Linguistics

Shannon Lee Dawdy, Professor, Anthropology

Mario Santana, Associate Professor,, Romance Languages and Literatures

Agnes Malinowska, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPH and English

Bruce Lincoln, Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Professor Emeritus, History of Religions

Michele Friedner, Professor, Comparative Human Development

Curtis J. Evans, Associate Professor of American Religions and the History of Christianity, Divinity School

Anna-Latifa Mourad, Assistant Professor of Egyptian Archaeology, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures/Middle Eastern Studies, 

Fred M. Donner, Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern History, Middle East Studies, ISAC, 

Salikoko S. Mufwene, The Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor, Linguistics & Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Adom Getachew, Professor , Political Science and RDI , 

Kristen Schilt, Associate Professor, Sociology

Clifton Ragsdale, Professor of Neurobiology

Larry Norman, Frank L. Sulzberger Distinguished Service Professor, RLL, 

Ania Aizman, Assistant Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Thomas C Holt, Professor Emeritus, History 

Dmitry Kondrashov, Instructional Professor, BSCD, 

Sianne Ngai, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor, English, 

Alison James,, Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures, 

Miguel Martinez, Professor of Spanish Literature, RLL

Itamar Francez, Associate Professor, , Linguistics 

Julie Orlemanski, Associate Professor, Department of English

Matthew Kruer, Assistant Professor, Department of History and Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Laura Colaneri, Teaching Fellow in the Humanities, Romance Languages and Literatures

Anthony Nicholson, Adjunct Associate Professor, Computer Science

Darryl Li, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Tristan J. Schweiger, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPH & English

Lisa Wedeen, Distinguished Service Professor, Political Science, 

Leland Jasperse, Humanities Teaching Fellow, English

Kamala Russell, Assistant Professor, Anthropology

John Proios, Assistant Professor, Philosophy

Marissa Fenley, Harper Schmidt Fellow in TAPS, The college/TAPS

Brianna Party, Production Manager, Theater & Performance Studies

Tina Post, Associate Professor, English and TAPS

Hilary Strang, Senior Instructional Professor, Humanities and MAPH 

Danielle Roper, Assistant professor, Romance languages 

Stephan Palmie, Norman and Edna Freehling Professor of Anthropology, Anthropology

Francois Richard, Associate Professor, Anthropology and RDI

Michael Geyer, Professor Emeritus, History

Alida Bouris, Associate Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Linda M. G. Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor, Political Science and Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality

Susan Gal, Distinguished Service Professor, , Anthropology and Linguistics

Chris Taylor, Associate Professor, English

Daniel Morgan, Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

Cecilia Palombo, Assistant professor, Middle Eastern Studies

Daragh Grant, Senior Lecturer, The College

John McCormick, Professor, Political Science

Alice Goff, Assistant Professor, History

Anand Venkatkrishnan, Assistant Professor, Divinity School

Cathy J. Cohen, D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor, Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Sarah Pierce Taylor, Assistant Professor, Divinity 

Robert L Kendrick, Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Music

Joseph Masco, Samuel N. Harper Professor, Anthropology

Choudhri Naim, Professor emeritus, South Asian Languages & Civilizations

Joy Wang, Collegiate Assistant Professor , Political Science

Benjamin Lahey, PhD, Harris Professor Emeritus of Public Health Sciences, Public Health Sciences

Rochona Majumdar, Professor, SALC and CMS

Travis A. Jackson, Associate Professor, Music

Jennifer Pitts, Professor, Political Science and the Committee on Social Thought

Karlyn Gorski, Assistant Instructional Professor, Harris School of Public Policy

Alireza Doostdar, Associate Professor, Divinity School

Allyson Nadia Field, Associate Professor, Department of Cinema and Media Studies

William H. Sewell, Jr, Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Political Science and History

Jade Pagkas-Bather, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health

William Mazzarella, Neukom Family Professor, Anthropology

Kyeong-Hee Choi, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Elizabeth Helsinger, John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, English, Art History

Laura Letinsky, Professor, Department of the Visual Arts

Christina von Nolcken, Associate Professor, emeritus, English and Program in Medieval Studies

Claudia Brittenham, Professor, Art History and Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Christine Mehring, Mary L. Block Professor, Department of Art History

Julian Go, Professor & Chair Interim, Sociology

Carolina López-Ruiz, Professor, Divinity School and Classics

Jennifer Cole, Professor, Comparative Human Development

Leora Auslander, Joann and Arthur Rasmussen Professor of Western Civilization, Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity and History

Anna Di Rienzo, Professor Emerita, Human Genetics

Callie Maidhof, Associate Director and Assistant Senior Instructional Professor, Global Studies

Gina Fedock, Associate Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Martha Feldman, Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor, Music

James Fernandez, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Anthropology

David Lebow, Program Director, Law, Letters, and Society

Jessica Darrow, Associate Instructional Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Kristen Schilt, Associate Professor, Sociology

Andrew Brandel, Associate Instructional Professor, SSCD

Renslow Sherer, Professor of Medicine, Section of ID and Global Health

Jason Grunebaum, Instructional Professor, SALC

Faith Hillis, Professor, History

Elaine Hadley, Professor, English

Melvyn Shochet, Kersten Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Physics

Bernard McGinn, Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus, Divinity School

Patrick Morrissey, Assistant Instructional Professor, Humanities Collegiate Division

Michael J. O’Donnell, Professor Emeritus, Computer Science

Lawrence Rothfield, Associate Professor emeritus, English

Connor Strobel, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Harper-Schmidt Fellow, Society of Fellows

Kimberly Kay Hoang, Professor , Sociology

Michele Friedner, Professor, Comparative Human Development

W.J.T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, English and Art History

Salomé Aguilera Skvirsky, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies

Russell Hall, Professor Emeritus, Medicine

Marshall Jean, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPSS

Philippe Desan, Howard L, Willett Professor emeritus , RLL

Amy Dru Stanley, Associate Professor, History

Gerald Rosenberg, Associate Professor Emeritus & Lecturer in Law, Political Science & Law School

Zach Loeffler, , Lecturer, The College

Paola Iovene, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Aaron Turkewitz, Professor, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology

Judith Zeitlin, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Theater and Performance Studies

Tara Zahra, Hanna Holborn Gray Professor, History

Dipesh Chakrabarty, Professor, History and SALC

Michael Rossi, Associate Professor, History

Sarah Newman, Assistant Professor, Anthropology

Ben Laurence, Instructional Professor, Human Rights

Catherine Kearns, Assistant Professor, Classics

Benjamin Saltzman, Associate Professor, English Language and Literature

Erica Warren, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPH and Art History

Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, Professor emerita, Anthropology

Armando Maggi, Professor, RLL

Carole Ober, Professor, Human Genetics

Kathryn Crim, Collegiate Assistant Professor, The College

Aidan Kaplan, Assistant Instructional Professor, Middle Eastern Studies

Asim Farooq, Associate Professor, Ophthalmology and Visual Science

Joshua Scodel, Helen A. Regeinstein Professor Emeritus, English and Comparative Literature

Seth Brodsky, Associate Professor, Music

Diana Schwartz Francisco, Assistant Instructional Professor, History

Sara Dallavalle, Assistant Instructional Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures

Rashauna Johnson, Associate Professor, History

Andrés Rabinovich, Assistant Instructional Professor, RLL

Andrew Pitel, Assistant Instructional Professor , MAPH and Philosophy

Eve L. Ewing, Associate Professor, Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Darrel Chia, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPH and English

John Schneider, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Medicine, Public Health Sciences

Leonardo Cabrini, Assistant Instructional Professor , Romance Languages and Literatures

Jacob Eyferth, associate professor, EALC, History

W. Clark Gilpin, Margaret E. Burton Professor, Emeritus, The Divinity School, The University of Chicago

Kenneth W. Warren, Professor, English

Na’ama Rokem, Associate Professor , Middle Eastern Studies and Comparative Literature

Willemien Otten, Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of History of Christianity and Theology, Divinity School

Robin Bartram, Assistant Professor, Crown School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Jan Goldstein, Norman and Edna Freehling Professor Emerita, History

Emilio Kourí, Professor, History

K.J. Hickerson, Assistant Instructional Professor, History

Angelina ILIEVA, Instructional Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures

Elizabeth A Grove, Emerita, Neurobiology

Uahikea Maile, Assistant Professor, Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity

Barbara Kee, Professor, Pathology

Adam Green, Associate Professor, Race, Diaspora and Indigeneity, and History

Victoria Prince, Professor, Organismal Biology & Anatomy

Ellie Heckscher, Associate Professor, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology

Dan Arnold, Professor, Divinity School

Colleen M. Grogan, Deborah R. and Edgar D. Jannotta University Professor, Crown Family School for Social Work, Policy & Practice

Adrienne Brown, Associate Professor, English & RDI

Daniel Brudney, Professor, Philosophy

Isaac Hand, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Society of Fellows, College

Eman Abdelhadi, Assistant Professor, Comparative Human Development

Sally Horne-Badovinac, Professor, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology

Stephen Haswell Todd, Associate Instructional Professor, Humanities Collegiate Division

Esmael J. Haddadian, Instructional Professor, BSCD

Mary (Ella) Wilhoit, Associate Instructional Professor, MA Program in the Social Sciences

Robert Chaskin, McCormick Foundation Professor, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Joseph Thornton, Professor, Ecology and Evolution, Human Genetics

Sarah Nooter, Edward Olson Professor, Classics

Leah Feldman, Associate Professor, Comparative literature

Mai Tuyet Pho, MD MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases & Global Health

William Schultz, Assistant Professor, Divinity School

Margaret Geoga, Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and Middle Eastern Studies

Gina Samuels, Professor of Social Work & Faculty Director, CSRPC, Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice

Marianne Bertrand, Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business

En-Ling Wu, Assistant Professor, Medicine

Laura Ring, Southern Asian Studies Librarian, Regenstein Library

Rachel Girty, Writing and Research Advisor, Creative Writing

Tyler W. Williams, Assistant Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations

Ghenwa Hayek, Associate Professor, Middle Eastern Studies

Aaron Jakes, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History, Department of History and CEGU

Florian Klinger, Associate Professor, Germanic Studies

Andrei Pop, Allan and Jean Frumkin Professor, Committee on Social Thought

Hoyt Long, Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Lindsay Alpert, Associate Professor, Pathology

Chiara Galli, Assistant Professor, Comparative Human Development

Marisa Casillas, Assistant Professor, Comparative Human Development

Micere Keels, Professor , Comparative Human Development

Kimberly Kenny, Senior Instructional Professor in Norwegian, Germanic Studies

Edwin M Munro, Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology

Leoandra Onnie Rogers, Faculty, Comparative Human Development

Kaneesha Parsard, Assistant Professor, English Language and Literature

Jonathan Flatley, Professor, English

Heather Keenleyside, Associate Professor, English

JP Murray, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Anna Symmes, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine

Khanh Nguyen, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Patrick Jagoda, Professor, Cinema & Media Studies and English

Genevieve Lakier, Professor, Law School

Gil J. Stein, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, Middle East Studies

Amber Pincavage, Professor, Department of Medicine

Hakan Karateke, Professor, Middle Eastern Studies

Paul Copp, Associate, Professor East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Gary Herrigel, Paul Klapper Professor in the College and Division of Social Sciences, Political Science

Augusta McMahon, Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology, Middle Eastern Studies

Sophie McMillan-Myers, Writing Specialist, University Writing Program

Ada H. Shissler, Associate Professor, MES

David Woken, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Librarian , University of Chicago Library

Ariel Fox, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Bel Olid, Assistant, Instructional Professor in Catalan and Spanish, RLL

Theo van den Hout, Prof. em. Hittite and Anatolian Languages, ISAC

Ulrike Stark, Professor, South Asian Languages and Civilizations

Andreas Glaeser, Professor, Sociology

Hussein Ali Agrama, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Josh Stadtner, PhD candidate, English

Erica Warren, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPH and Art History

Andrew M Davis, MD MPH, Clinical Professor of Medicine, BSD – department of Medicine

Noel Blanco Mourelle, Assistant Professor, RLL

Julie Y. Chu, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Michael Cohen, Senior Research Analyst, Psychology

Neil Brenner, Lucy Flower Professor of Urban Sociology, Sociology

Kay Heikkinen, Ibn Rushd Lecturer in Arabic, Retired, Middle Eastern Studies

Noémie Ndiaye, Associate Professor, English and RLL

Carolyn Barnes, Associate Professor, Crown School of Social Work Policy and Practice

Brian Nord, CASE Scientist, Astronomy and Astrophysics

Andrea Justine Landi, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine

Emily Simon, Graduate Student, Astronomy & Astrophysics

Sam McDermott, research staff, Astronomy and Astrophysics

Sarah McDaniel, Teaching Fellow in the Humanities, English & Gender and Sexuality Studies

Alice Yao, Associate Professor, Anthropology

Karlyn Gorski, Assistant Instructional Professor, Harris

Scott Jung, Writing Specialist, Writing Program

Sarah Osment, Writing Specialist, Writing Program

Larisa Reznik, Assistant Instructional Professor of Jewish Civilization    

Nell Pach, Writing and Research Advisor, English

Tracey Rosen, Instructional Professor, Social Sciences

Elaine Waxman, Lecturer, Crown School of Social Work, Policy and Practice

Rachel Mehendale, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology

Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué, Teaching Fellow in the Humanities, English

Sarah-Gray Lesley, Teaching Fellow, English and the Humanities

Luke Joyner, Assistant Instructional Professor, Art History (Architectural Studies)

Lilly Immergluck, Professor , Pediatrics, Section of Infectious Díseases

Damien Bright, Lecturer, MAPSS & Anthropology

Aziz Huq, Professor, Law

Hans Thomalla, Helen A. Regenstein Professor , Department of Music

Jennifer Cole , Professor , Comparative human development

Molly Long, Research Program Administrator, Data Science Institute

Celeste Labedz, Assistant Instructional Professor, Department of the Geophysical Sciences

Jeremy Schmidt, Writing Specialist, University Writing Program

William Levine, Harper-Schmidt Fellow & Collegiate Assistant Professor, The College

Geof Oppenheimer, Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Visual Arts

Kevin King, Lecturer, Humanities Collegiate Division

Max Smith, Lecturer, Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences

Austin O’Malley, Assistant Professor, Middle Eastern Studies

Melinh Lai, Assistant Instructional Professor , Cognitive Science

Liam Kilby, Program Mentor, Master of Arts Program in the Humanities

Carl Fuldner, Erica Warren, Assistant Instructional Professor, MAPH and Art History

Erika Dornfeld, Director of Field Education and Community Engagement , Divinity School

Nora Holmes, Undergraduate , LLSO and History

Tamara Golan, Assistant Professor, Art History

 Cynthia G Lindner, Director of Ministry Studies and Clinical Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Care, The Divinity School

AE Torres, Assistant Professor, Comparative Literature

Alison Balaskovits, Student Affairs Administrator, Music

Annie Williams, Staff, Humanities

David A. Peterson, Assistant Instructional Professor, MACSS

Anna Hornsby, Staff    

Ian Jones, Lecturer 2, Cinema and Media Studies

Amanda Ceniti, Assistant Instructional Professor, Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences

Eleanor Cunningham, Graduate Student, Humanities

Alice Luna, Graduate Student, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Maria Steinrueck, Postdoctoral scholar,  Astronomy and Astrophysics

Ariane Dekke, Postdoc, KICP

Omar McRoberts, Associate Professor, Sociology and Race, Diaspora and Indigeneity

Joseph Dov Bruch, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences

Tien-Tien Jong, PhD candidate, Cinema and Media Studies

Alex Muir, Assistant professor, Ben May Department for Cancer Research

Tanvi Karwal, Postdoc, KICP, Astronomy and Astrophysics

Austin Stover, Graduate Student, Physics

Nancy Martinez, Student, College

Catherine Sullivan, Professor , Department of Visual Arts

Francesco Zucconi, Visiting Associate Professor and Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Italian Studies (2023-24), RLL

Sam Daly, Associate Professor, History

Marco G. Ferrari, Lecturer, Cinema and media studies

Emily Kern, Assistant professor, Department of History

Matthew W. Stolper, John A. Wilson Professor Emeritus of Assyriology, Emeritus Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, Middle East Studies

Olga Sanchez, Associate Instructional Professor, Music

Marina Blough, Masters student, MAPH

Please click here to add your name