Anita Hill blames Salaita lawsuit, 'polarity' for not speaking at UI

posted on: Mar 16, 2015

A second high-profile speaker in as many weeks has backed out of a planned visit to the University of Illinois over the Steven Salaita saga.

The latest: Anita Hill, who was booked to give the keynote address at the Faculty Women of Color in the Academy’s third national conference, set for April 10-11, as well as deliver a lecture at the UI.

Neither will happen, Hill wrote in a column that appeared online Sunday in The Huffington Post. Her reason for canceling, though, differs from Cornel West’s and others who preceded the civil rights activist in boycotting the university as a show of support for Salaita.

Hill wrote Sunday that the Palestinian-American professor’s pending lawsuit against the university over it revoking a job offer in August 2014 has created a “changed environment” that “erodes the possibility of the open conversation I had hoped to have during my talks there.”

Source: www.news-gazette.com