Some Professors Are Scoffing at the Nikole Hannah-Jones UNC Tenure Lawsuit

Some Professors Are Scoffing at the Nikole Hannah-Jones UNC Tenure Lawsuit

As mentioned in an earlier post, 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones may sue UNC Chapel Hill for denying her tenure, but some academics say the school made the right call.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Profs Scoff at Nikole Hannah-Jones Tenure Suit

The woman behind the controversial 1619 Project has no business working as a tenured university professor, historians and political scientists told the Washington Free Beacon—and they scoffed at a lawsuit the journalist is reportedly preparing to litigate the University of North Carolina’s decision to deny her tenure.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times journalist who emerged from obscurity to become one of the most prominent voices in media, is gearing up to sue the University of North Carolina for racial discrimination after the school denied her tenure in May.

While the move was met with outrage in many corners, a handful of academics are pushing back and applauding the school for defending scholarship over popular politics. They include the Yale University political science professor Steven Smith, who said the offer of tenure to Jones was “a gross violation of academic commitments to truth and accuracy.”

Lifetime appointments for individuals without Ph.D.s, such as Hannah-Jones, generally require “extraordinary” work, said Michigan State political philosophy professor William Allen.

“Hannah-Jones does not seem to fit the mold of such high academic achievement,” Allen said. “As a consequence, the action by the UNC Board seems entirely in keeping with the usual academic practices—the appointment having been infelicitously pushed forward on political rather than solid academic grounds.”

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