Althouse: "Language and Linguistics for Decolonization and Liberation and for Peace and Community Building — From the River to the Sea in Palestine and Israel to the Mountaintops of Haiti and Beyond."

October 10, 2026

"Language and Linguistics for Decolonization and Liberation and for Peace and Community Building — From the River to the Sea in Palestine and Israel to the Mountaintops of Haiti and Beyond."

That's the name of the class discussed in "The Controversial Class That M.I.T. Is Paying a Professor Not to Teach/Michel DeGraff, a vocal pro-Palestinian activist, can’t be easily fired because he has tenure. But he has been kicked out of his department" (NYT).

"An M.I.T. panel rejected the course over questions about whether Dr. DeGraff, a Haitian scholar and expert in the study of Creole languages, had the expertise to teach it. That was supposed to finish the matter.... He disagreed that he lacked the ability to teach the course.... 'M.I.T. should not be repressing my teaching in this way,' Dr. DeGraff said in an interview. He called the decision a 'violation of my professional rights.'..."

16 comments:

Spiros said...: When I was in college we had a hilarious engineering professor (Arthur Butz) who didn't believe in the Holocaust. He's still teaching and he's 93 years old!; 10/10/26, 5:51 PM
Original Mike said...: Departments decide what is taught, not individual faculty.; 10/10/26, 5:54 PM
MadTownGuy said...: "Language and Linguistics for Decolonization and Liberation and for Peace and Community Building — From the River to the Sea in Palestine and Israel to the Mountaintops of Haiti and Beyond."

"That's the name of the class."

Then it's really not about language and linguistics, except as they serve as carriers for propaganda.; 10/10/26, 6:00 PM
Larry J said...: And to think, some people believe professors are indoctrinating instead of teaching their students. Why would they possibly believe that? /s; 10/10/26, 6:01 PM
Aggie said...: ...'a vocal pro-Palestinian activist, can’t be easily fired because he has tenure....'

Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.; 10/10/26, 6:02 PM
Achilles said...: Taxpayers shouldn't be funding any of this.; 10/10/26, 6:40 PM
Clyde said...: WTF does that left-wing propagandizing have to do with Technology?; 10/10/26, 6:42 PM
Josephbleau said...: He should have just made it a nameless seminar or a special topics class. He could have passed the word to the true believers and the normal kids would never have known. Getting thrown out of your department is not good, regardless of tenure.; 10/10/26, 7:24 PM
Just an old country lawyer said...: M.I.T. has long been one of the top schools of engineering in the world. Why did they even get themselves stuck in this tar baby? And what is that whining about Haitian independence? Haiti has been an independent nation since their revolution succeeded in 1804, killing or driving out the French slave owners, some of whom are ancestors of mine. The place has been a basket case ever since, but independent, nonetheless.; 10/10/26, 7:25 PM
Rabel said...: In his defense, he does pass the fruity test.; 10/10/26, 7:26 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: Maybe the prof has tenure, but any student dumb enough to take it should be kicked out of M.I.T.; 10/10/26, 7:26 PM
n.n said...: Pro-Hamasidal, Pro-Occupied Iran, anti-Israel, and anti-Gaza.; 10/10/26, 7:31 PM
Josephbleau said...: Noam Chomsky Is still listed as emeritus at the mit linguistics dept. He kept his academics plausibly respectable and did not have classes on the revolution, he did it on his own time.; 10/10/26, 7:34 PM
William said...: Is there much of a demand for such a course at MIT. That doesn't seem like it would hold much interest for a future rocket scientist. Maybe Cambridge though. I understand there's been a recent opening there for someone with his skill set and credentials.; 10/10/26, 8:31 PM
NKP said...: In a sane world the prof would find the locks changed on his office in the morning and the first attorney who showed up would catch a baseball bat on a kneecap..; 10/10/26, 8:34 PM
loudogblog said...: It's not even like this is a Liberal arts college. This is a technical institute. Why would someone think that they have a legal right to teach a social justice class at a technical institute? Plus, he's an employee, shouldn't he be expected to only teach classes that he is assigned to teach?

But the real question is: Who hired him and for what purpose? Because I would agree that it would be unethical to promise someone that they would be allowed to do something as a part of their job and then rugpull them about it after they were hired.

I also wouldn't say that it doesn't seem that he wasn't "qualified" to teach that course. I suspect that the real problem was creating a course about the Palestinian issue in the first place. What does that have to do with the Haitian language, computer science and how they intersect? This is probably just a personal, social justice project that doesn't really have a place at MIT.; 10/10/26, 9:02 PM