[The below open letter is currently being circulated by a group of Ohio University faculty. If you are a faculty member at OU and would like to add your name to the letter, please send your full name and department (for identification purposes only) to right2speech@yahoo.com]
September 10, 2014
As faculty at Ohio University, we declare our support for Megan Marzec’s right to hold the views she expressed as well as the manner in which she expressed them in her ‘Gaza blood-bucket video.’ We are appalled by the death threats and other forms of intimidation that she has faced in response. We are also disappointed in OU administrators and community members who have criticized her act but have not publicly defended her against this violent response.
The invocation of “civility” in the responses of OU authorities and some members of the community to Marzec also concerns us. Too often, as is recently the case at the University of Illinois and University of California, the invocation of “civility” functions to silence dissent and debate on issues of current concern.
Without advocating a particular position on the Israel-Palestine issue — we hold diverse opinions on this question — we nevertheless staunchly affirm Marzec’s right to express her views. We also affirm that her method of expression is a legitimate form of protest and strategy to call on others to take up the issue for debate. Marzec’s challenge does not undermine “civility,” but rather raises awareness of a topic of great current and historical importance to the United States, the Middle East, and the world as a whole.
Dramatic nonviolent actions — draft-card burnings, lunch-counter sit-ins, and even self-immolations — capture public attention and spark reactions in an effort to create public debate and social change. There is a long and honorable tradition of such protests in the United States and in Ohio public education. Marzec’s action is no different. It is consistent with what makes us most proud to be educators. We support Marzec and we call on the Ohio University community to have a genuine and open debate on the questions she has raised.
Signatories
[Names listed alphabetically. Department/School listed for identification purposes only]
Gene Ammarell, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Neil Bernstein, Department of Classics and World Religions
Thomas Carpenter, Department of Classics and World Religions
Devika Chawla, School of Communication Studies
James Coady (Emeritus), Department of Linguistics
Brian Collins, Department of Classics and World Religions
Elizabeth Collins, Department of Classics and World Religions
Anne Cooper (Emerita), Scripps School of Journalism
Mariana Dantas, Department of History
Ofer Eliaz, School of Dance, Film, and Theater
Melissa Haviland, School of Art and Design
Steve Hays, Department of Classics and World Religions
Gary Holcomb, Department of African American Studies
Akil Houston, Department of African American Studies
Steve Howard, School of Media Arts and Studies
Jaylynne N. Hutchinson, Critical Cultural Studies in Education, Department of
Educational Studies
Nicholas J. Kiersey, Department of Political Science
Jennie Klein, School of Art and Design
Ray Klimek, School of Art and Design
Laura Larson, School of Art and Design
Loren D. Lybarger, Department of Classics and World Religions
Ghirmai Negash, Department of English
Vladimir Marchenkov, School of Interdisciplinary Arts
Kevin Mattson, Department of History
Jaclyn Maxwell, Department of History
Duane McDiarmid, School of Art and Design
Richard McGinn (Emeritus), Department of Linguistics
Harold Perkins, Department of Geography
Marina Peterson, School of Interdisciplinary Arts
Herta Rodina, Department of Modern Languages
Louis-Georges Schwartz, School of Dance, Film, and Theater
David Sharpe, Department of English
Kevin Uhalde, Department of History
Julie White, Department of Political Science
