Professors in Trouble Over Protests Wonder if Academic Freedom Is Dying

Maura Finkelstein, an anthropology professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, was an avid poster on social media. She called a fund-raiser for the Israeli war effort “students raising money for genocide,” and she frequently ended her posts with the words “Free Palestine.”

After complaints, federal civil rights investigators and the college began looking into her online postings and classroom discussions about the war in Gaza.

But it was her sharing of an Instagram post by a Palestinian American poet, Remi Kanazi, that got her fired, Dr. Finkelstein said. “Do not cower to Zionists,” the post said. “Don’t normalize Zionists taking up space.”

A student complained that the post made her feel unsafe, as a Zionist and as a Jew. “She said she wouldn’t feel comfortable in my classes,” Dr. Finkelstein said in an interview.

As protests unfolded at scores of college campuses last spring, students were not the only ones punished for participating. Faculty members also faced consequences for supporting the students in their protests or for expressing views that were construed as antisemitic or, less commonly, for pro-Israel activism.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified what many faculty members and their allies believe is part of a growing assault on the ideals of academic freedom, a principle that most American colleges and universities hold dear.