We write, as scholars within and beyond academia, in support of our colleague, Texas Tech University assistant professor Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores, who has been targeted, doxxed, and slandered [and subsequently suspended by TTU] due to his pro-Palestine commitment and online speech. This comes in the context of the repression and vilification of free speech in our academic institutions, with student and student groups, as well as faculty and staff, doxxed, banned, or otherwise singled-out for bullying and harassment due to their advocacy to end the genocide of Palestinians by Israeli forces.
We write with an urgent demand that universities and colleges, including Texas Tech University, be maintained as bastions of academic freedom, debate, and free speech. Professor Fúnez-Flores has, since October, been targeted by right-wing media who have repeatedly misrepresented his statements and actions. Not only was he accused of antisemitism for speaking out about Israeli atrocities, but due to local laws allowing it, his personal communications were FOIA’d by his accusers. These harassing and violating actions are the most recent in the targeting of his scholarship which has long championed people facing injustice.
We believe that regardless of their own political positions all scholars should be deeply concerned about this harassment of Professor Funez-Flores by right-wing media, the attempt to use his personal correspondence against him, and the attack on his livelihood. The blatant persecution and intimidation against Professor Funez-Flores is sad evidence of the insidious erosion of academic freedom and the return of political persecution of intellectual dissent. The quality of our pedagogy, our ability to further academic discourse and thought, is contingent on the institutional protections around academic freedom, which have long been a core value of our academic institutions. This commitment demands unwavering solidarity against such attacks.