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We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern and outrage over both the recent demand for the retraction of Rebecca Tuvel’s article, “In Defense of Transracialism,” which was published in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy on March 29th, and Hypatia’s temporarily acquiescing to this demand by removing the article in its online form for a period of time.

The open letter to Hypatia (published on April 30), which garnered over 800 signatures of academics from universities within the US and elsewhere, in addition to a handful of writers, was a mean-spirited mischaracterization of a scholar’s work that was conspicuously lacking in any attempt to engage with the primary argument offered therein. Instead, the letter demanded a retraction based on spurious and, in some instances, demonstrably wrong assertions regarding the content of the work. We agree with Jessie Singal’s overall assessment in his article, “This Is What a Modern Day Witch Hunt Looks Like,” and we share his suspicion that despite calling for its retraction, many of the signatories had not read Tuvel’s article before adding their names to the letter. In fact, one must wonder if some of the signatories had even read the open letter to Hypatia given the petition’s absolute defiance to critical inquiry and academic deliberation.

Most of the signatories to the Hypatia letter enjoy both the intellectual and practical benefits of free and open debate and discussion within their institutions. A vast majority of the signatories also directly benefit from the mechanisms of fairness of review processes within publishing in order for their ideas and words to see the light of day. This letter is then addressed to the heads of the universities and publishing houses of those who signed the Hypatia letter, which not only set out to have an article disappeared, but contributed to a cultural climate in which debate is stifled and individuals are demonized. These signatories participated in a purposeful, modern-era witch hunt whereby some of the most privileged in academia and publishing created a groundswell of opprobrium for a junior scholar — one that can be reasonably expected to have serious ramifications for her career and reputation.

Many of us have watched in astonishment and horror over the last few years as identity politics has been used as a cudgel to disappear the material condition and facticity of the world, be it social or scientific. Instead of nurturing dialogue with one’s interlocutor, a climate of taking irrational, unscientific, and reactionary dogma has been championed by the academy and the media. Anyone who has dared to question, critique, or even — as in the case of Tuvel — subject it to rigorous logical scrutiny in an effort to expand its application, has been met with shaming at best and abuse at worst. This alarming call for the silencing of an academic who made a good faith argument has left little room for doubt that the proponents of this dogma will brook no questioning of it. We believe that the signatories to the Hypatia letter have engaged in a call for de facto censorship and deep intellectual dishonesty to intimidate not just Tuvel, but anyone else who might consider offering a contrary opinion or perspective.

The signatories sent a clear message: no inquiry into the function and precepts of the prevailing philosophy of gender will be tolerated. We unequivocally reject this message and affirm our right to question, critique, and rebut any and all philosophies or viewpoints, regardless of how much academic support they may have. We recognize the Hypatia letter as an egregious example of a growing authoritarian trend when it comes to engaging certain topics. We refuse to bend to it. We condemn the attempts of academics and others to silence and erase from public view an opinion solely because it does not fall within the discursive parameters that they have taken it upon themselves to set. We assert that the academics who signed on to this letter betrayed their fundamental duty as scholars to encourage — even demand — rigorous examination and robust discussion of ideas.

It is supremely ironic that Tuvel’s acceptance and application of many of the core arguments used to buttress one of the prevailing views of a certain type of identity, when applied to another social domain has, conversely, sparked such outrage. It is difficult for us to draw any conclusion other than that Tuvel — however inadvertently — has shown the hollowness of such ideas and that those who expound them can proffer no credible defense. The letter and the demand for retraction show nothing as much as a thorough inability to logically rebut Tuvel’s argument.

And there is a glaring paradox at the centre of this affair — that one of the better known signatories has previously written the following:

“This attempt to purify the sphere of public discourse by institutionalizing the norms that establish what ought properly to be included there operates as a preemptive censor. Such efforts not only labour under a fear of contamination, but they are also compelled to restage in the spectacles of public denunciations they perform the very utterances they seek to banish from public life.”

We find it difficult to fathom how this individual can reconcile these sentiments with a letter that calls for the silencing of a scholar without even a cursory attempt at counter-argument. We again note the irony. This professor and her co-signers have advanced an onslaught of harassment towards an individual whose ideas are merely an application of their own theories and belief-systems. This amounts to an abuse of power on the part of influential individuals ensconced in powerful institutions. In endorsing this call for the silencing of a good faith and rigorous effort on the part of a scholar, they have shown themselves to be inadequate models of scholarly integrity and intellectual honesty.

We are not all scholars or academics. Our political affiliations and outlooks vary in numerous ways. We are professionals and laypeople; workers and readers; some of us are activists and some are not. Many of us do not agree with the premise of Tuvel’s article in fact, but we wholeheartedly support open debate and the freedom of intellectual exchange through the medium of publishing. We believe that we must confront three distinct issues:

1) The growing academic trend, particularly evident when it comes to gender, to stifle debate and shame, harass, and defame anyone who does not mindlessly parrot the prevailing orthodoxy;

2) The logical and political shortcomings inherent in much of the currently popular theory concerning gender;

3) The elision of feminist politics and the troubling sidelining of sex over gender “feelings,” ultimately contributing to institutional sexism whereby only those who toe the genderist ideology are rewarded, while all mention of material reality of females is pushed aside in both academic and editorial structures (i.e. the disappearance of women’s studies departments over the past two decades in favour of gender studies programs and the conterminous decrease of publications related to the material and experiential reality of females and sex-based oppression).

We are a diverse group of people who understand that ideas matter and that intellectual trends impact the society at large. They affect law, media, medicine, culture, language, and politics; they affect how we are educated and how our workplaces function; and, as this episode has made abundantly clear, they can even determine who is allowed to express an opinion and who isn’t. Because of this, vigorous and open debate and discussion is essential. We see in the Hypatia letter a clear attempt to incite fear in anyone who dares to not show unswerving deference to certain propositions and we condemn it in the most unequivocal terms. Unlike “A Majority of the Hypatia‘s Board of Associated Editors,” whose apology showed a craven eagerness to abandon basic principles of free speech and editorial integrity, we stand strong in our commitment to open discussion and assert our absolute right to question ideas and to shape alternate views.

We demand that:

1) The provosts and other chief administrators and editors who serve at the institutions with which the signatories are affiliated publicly disavow the call for silencing made in the letter and affirm their support for free dialogue and debate and begin to consider programs and initiatives to address the alarming authoritarian trend on the part of certain academics evidenced clearly in the Hypatia letter.

2) Hypatia republish Tuvel’s original article in its original full form with an apology to the author and their readers.

3) The universities and publishers named herein engage in addressing the growing problem of intellectual harassment within their walls by opening up forums and publications which address the growing problem of silencing and no-platforming, with the usual suspects being females who question or, as in the case of Tuvel, employ gender identity within a perfectly reasonable academic exercise.

To view signatories and to add your name to this letter, please visit ipetitions.com.



This open letter will be sent to the following provosts and other chief administrators and editors who serve at the institutions with which the signatories to the Hypatia letter are affiliated:

Hypatia Editorial Board

Elizabeth Abrams, University of California, Santa Cruz

Augustine O. Agho, Old Dominion University

Peter-André Alt, Freie Universität Berlin

Valerie Amos, SOAS University of London

Sona K. Andrews, Portland State University

Terri Anne Camesano, Bruce Bursten, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Parvis Ansari, Westfield State University

Paul Arcario, LaGuardia Community College (CUNY)

Michael Arthur, University of London

Attila Askar, Koç University, Istanbul

Matthew R. Auer, Bates College

Timothy R. Austin, Duquesne University

Bert C. Bach, East Tennessee State University

Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Queen’s University

Gail F. Baker, University of San Diego

Turina Bakken, Madison College

Gerald Baldasty, University of Washington

Susan Baldridge, Middlebury College

Deborah Baldwin, University of Arkansas Little Rock

Alberto Edgardo Barbieri, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Jean Bartels, Georgia Southern University

Craig Barton, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Scott A. Bass, American University

Patricia E. Beeson, University of Pittsburgh

Neeli Bendapudi, University of Kansas

Justin Bengry, Founder and Managing Editor, Notches

James Bennighof, Baylor University

Sheri Berger, Pierce College

Michael Bernstein, Stony Brook University

Neil Besner, University of Winnipeg

Hester Bijl, Leiden University Center for the Arts in Society

Dale B. Billingsley, University of Louisville

Christopher Bishop, Microsoft Research New England

Julia Black, London School of Economics

Fabienne Blaise, Lille University

M. Brian Blake, Drexel University

David Bogen, Maryland Institute College of Art

David Bolton, City University of London

Judy Bonner, Mississippi State University

Leszek Borysiewicz, University of Cambridge

Gene Bourgeois, Texas State University

Jeanne F. Brady, Saint Joseph’s University

Cheryl Brandsen, Calvin College

Guy Breton, Université de Montréal

Nancy Brickhouse, St. Louis University

Ross Brown, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama London

Marilyn Buck, Ball State University

Rosemarie Buikema, Bluestockings Magazine

Edward Burger, Southwestern University

Tom Burish, University of Notre Dame

David Burrows, Lawrence University

Ken Burtis, University of California, Davis

Edward Byrne, King’s College London

Mike Calford, University of Tasmania

Phyllis Callahan, Miami University

H.E.A. (Eddy) Campbell, University of New Brunswick

Brent Carbajal, Western Washington University

Paula J. Carlson, Luther College

Kevin R. Carman, University of Nevada, Reno

Dennis Carroll, High Point University

Ben Leeds Carson, University of California, Santa Cruz

Joy Carter, University of Winchester

Henrik Caspar, Wegener, University of Copenhagen

John Cater, Edge Hill University

Wes Chapin, University of Wisconsin River Falls

Diane Z. Chase, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Joe Chicharo, University of Wollongong

Carol T. Christ, University of California, Berkeley

Alan Christy, University of California, Santa Cruz

John Henry Coatsworth, Columbia University

Denise Cobb, Southern Illinois University—Edwardsville

Jim Coleman, University of Arkansas

Jeanne Colleran, John Carroll University

Francis S. Collins, National Institutes of Health

Marie-Christine Collomb, Université Paris-Sorbonne

Scott Coltrane, University of Oregon

Rick Commons, Harvard-Westlake School

Andrew C. Comrie, University of Arizona

Marc Conner, Washington and Lee University

Joy Connolly, CUNY Graduate Center

Jay Coogan, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

Kim Coplin, Denison University

Paul N. Courant, University of Michigan

Michael Crafton, University of West Georgia

Ruth Crilly, Western Sydney University

Andrew Crouch, University of the Witwatersrand

Susan J. Curry, University of Iowa

Ann Davies, Beloit College

Eric Davis, University of the Fraser Valley

Gayle R. Davis, Grand Valley State University

Janice Deakin, University of Western Ontario

James W. Dean, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Donald H. DeHayes, University of Rhode Island

Jane Den Hollander, Deakin University

Marten L. denBoer, DePaul University

Carolyn Dever, Dartmouth College

Steven Dew, University of Alberta

John Dewar, La Trobe University

Todd A. Diacon, Kent State University

Jeannine Diddle Uzzi, University of Southern Maine

Daniel Diermeier, University of Chicago

Robbert Dijkgraaf, Loyola Marymount University/Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Persis S. Drell, Stanford University

Thomas Dunk, Brock University

Dana Dunn, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Debasish (Deba) Dutta, Purdue University

Donald R. Eastman, Eckerd College

Executive Editor, Sarah Broadie, The Philosophical Quarterly, Independent Scholar

Katherine Elizabeth Fleming, New York University

Susan Elrod, University of Wisconsin at Whitewater

Kenneth L. Ender, Harper College

Christine Ennew, University of Warwick

Chukuka S. Enwemeka, San Diego State University

Alexander Enyedi, Humboldt State University

JoAnne A. Epps, Temple University

Dean Eric Eliason, Concordia College, Moorhead

Dorothy Escribano, College of New Rochelle, NY

Chris Evans, Ryerson University

Knut Fægri, University of Oslo

Gervan Fearon, Brandon University, Canada

Katherine Fell, University of Findlay

Joel Ferguson, University of California, Santa Cruz

Edward Feser, Oregon State University

Des Fitzgerald, University of Limerick

William L. Fox, St. Lawrence University

DonnaJean A. Fredeen, Rider University

Stephen Freedman, Fordham University

Lisa Freeman, Northern Illinois University

Annie Furuyama, Utrecht University

Ilshat Gafurov, Kazan University

Michael Galyean, Texas Tech University

Alan M. Garber, Harvard University

Laurel Garrick-Duhaney, SUNY New Paltz

Stephen Gerlach, Flinders University

Dean R. Gerstein, Claremont Graduate University, UC San Diego

Joseph Glover, University of Florida

Jeffrey Goldberg, Mount Royal University

Noreen Golfman, Memorial University of Newfoundland

David Graham, University of Ottawa

Domenico Grasso, University of Delaware

O. Finley Graves, University of North Texas

David Greenaway, University of Nottingham

Robert Groves, Georgetown University

Gail Hackett, Virginia Commonwealth University

Jeremy Haefner, RIT

Andrew (Andy) Hale Feinstein, San Jose State University

Michael Halleran, The College of William & Mary

Karen Hanson, University of Minnesota

Cindy Harcum, Baltimore City College

W. Ken Harmon, Kennesaw State University

Kathleen Harring, Muhlenberg College

Constance Harsh, Colgate University

Lyn Hejinian and Travis Ortiz, Atelos

Donald E. Heller, University of San Francisco

Joseph Hellige, Loyola Marymount University

Elizabeth Hendrey, CUNY Queens

Gregory D. Hess, Wabash College

Matthew S. Holland, Utah Valley University

Steve Hollenhorst, Huxley College of the Environment

Editors, Homofactus

Debra Humphris, University of Brighton

Jennie Hunter-Cevera, Mount Saint Mary’s University Los Angeles

Jacqueline E. Huntoon, Michigan Technological University

Edward Inch, California State University, East Bay

Beth Ingram, North Dakota State University

Matt Inman, Three Rivers Press & Penguin Random House

Farrukh Iqbal, Institute of Business Administration (Pakistan)

Don Jackson, Hastings College

Dennis C. Jacobs, Santa Clara University

Ian Jacobs, University of New South Wales

Joyce Jacobsen, Wesleyan University

Farnam Jahanian, Carnegie Mellon University

Brian Jersky, California State University, Long Beach

Michael D. Johnson, Babson College

Laurel Jones, Cabrillo College

Nicholas P. Jones, Penn State University

Laura Joseph, Farmingdale State College, SUNY

Ellen Junn, California State University, Stanislaus

Thomas C. Katsouleas, University of Virginia

Peter Keller, Simon Fraser University

Peggy D. Kennedy, Minnesota State Community and Technical College

Rogan Kersh, Wake Forest University School of Divinity

Joe Klesner, Kenyon College

Lori G. Kletzer, Colby College

Sally Kornbluth, Duke University

Michael Kotlikoff, Cornell University

Douglas Kristensen, University of Nebraska Kearney

Darrell P. Kruger, Appalachian State University

Gregg Kvistad, University of Denver

Peter Landgren, University of Cincinnati

Gina Langhout, University of California, Santa Cruz

Winston E. Langley, University of Massachusetts Boston

Cynthia K. Larive, University of California, Riverside

David Lassner, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

David Latchman, Birkbeck College, University of London

Kelly Lauer, Harvey Mudd College

Enrique J. Lavernia, University of California, Irvine

Doreen Lawrence, De Montfort University

Thomas J. LeBlanc, University of Miami

David S. Lee, Princeton University

Herbie Lee, University of California, Santa Cruz

Yi Li, California State University, Northridge

Kung-Yee Liang, National Yang-Ming University

Michael Licari, Indiana State University

Daniel I. Linzer, Northwestern University

Daniel J. Linzer, Bernardo, Washington State University

Ronnie Lipschutz, University of California, Santa Cruz

Richard M. Locke, Brown University

Joan F. Lorden, University of North Carolina Charlotte

Patrick Loughrey, Goldsmiths, University of London

Dan Lowenstein, University of California, San Francisco

Carol Macdonald, Senior Commissioning Editor, Edinburgh University Press

Alfred MacKay, Oberlin College

Patrick G. Maggitti, Villanova University

Lynn Mahoney, California State University, Los Angeles

Forrest Maltzman, George Washington University

Christopher P. Manfredi, McGill University

Sarah Mangelsdorf, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Robert A. Mangione, St. John’s University

David Marshall, University of California, Santa Barbara

Jennifer Martin, Texas Woman’s University

April Mason, Kansas State University

John Matachek, Hamline University

Liviu Matei, Central European University

Brian R. McGee, College of Charleston

Maurie McInnis, University of Texas at Austin

Tiffany McKillip Franks, Averett University

Shari McMahan, California State University, San Bernardino

Caroline McMillen, University of Newcastle

Bruce A. McPheron, Ohio State University

Nina Mikhalevsky, University of Mary Washington

Nina Mikhalevsky, University of Maryland

Rick Miranda, Colorado State University

Steven Mithen, University of Reading

Jane Monnig Atkinson, Clark College

Russell L. Moore, University of Colorado Boulder

Jean Morrison, Boston University

Jan M. Murphy, Illinois State University

Anton Muscatelli, University of Glasgow

Daniel J. Myers, Marquette University

Roderick Nairn, University of Colorado Denver

Leanne Neilson, California Lutheran University

James A. Newell, Rowan University

Katherine S. Newman, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Laurie Nichols, University of Wyoming

Donald G. Nieman, Binghamton University

Philip Nolan, Maynooth University

Timothy O’Shea, University of Sussex / Edinburgh College of Art

Brennan O’Donnell, Manhattan College

Patrick O’Shea, University College Cork

Graham Oberem, California State University, San Marcos

Jeff Ollerhead, Mount Allison University

Chinyere Oparah, Mills College

Ian Orchard, University of Waterloo

Guy Orpen, University of Bristol

Travis Ortiz, Atelos

David W. Oxtoby, Pomona College

Michael Palis, Rutgers University

Risa Palm, Georgia State University

Andrew Parfitt, University of Technology Sydney

Marc Parlange, Monash University

Naren Patel, University of Dundee

Franco Pavoncello, John Cabot University

Sandra J. Peart, University of Richmond

Gary W Perry, Florida Atlantic University

Debra Peters, Ecosphere

Lisa Philipps, York University

Clarenda Phillips, Notre Dame of Maryland University

June Pierce Youatt, Michigan State University

Susan Poser, University of Illinois at Chicago

Vincent Price, University of Pennsylvania

Robert Proulx, Université du Québec à Montréal

Mark Prus, CUNY Graduate Center and City College of New York

Anil K. Puri, California State University, Fullerton

Michael Quick, University of Southern California

David Quigley, Boston College

Donald R. Strong, Ecology

J. Ralph Byington, Coastal Carolina University

Malcolm Reed, Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Cheryl Regehr, University of Toronto

Pascal Reghem, University of Le Havre

Peter Ricketts, Carleton University

Lauren Robel, Indiana University Bloomington

Sofia Robledo, Bluestockings Magazine

Rodney K. Rogers, Bowling Green State University

David Roland Finley, Delta College

Victoria Roman-Lagunas, Northeastern Illinois University

David V. Rosowsky, University of Vermont

Eva Rueschmann, Hampshire College

Gary Sandefur, Oklahoma State University

Warren G. Sandmann, William Paterson University

Martin Schmidt, MIT

Mark Searle, Arizona State University

Megan Segoshi, Editor in Chief, Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education

William Serrata, El Paso Community College

Margaret Sheil, University of Melbourne

Sandy Shugart, Valencia College

Gillian Siddall, OCAD University

John Smarrelli Jr., Christian Brothers University

Robert T. Smith, Armstrong State University

Joseph M. Sopcich, Johnson County Community College

Steven Spier, Kingston University, London

Tom Stephenson, Swarthmore College

Garnett S. Stokes, University of Missouri

Donald Straney, University of Hawai’i at Hilo

Jennifer Summit, San Francisco State University

Nancy Targett, University of New Hampshire

Jacqueline Taylor, The College of New Jersey

Helen Teasdale, University of Sheffield

Jeremy Teitelbaum, University of Connecticut

Saul Tendler, University of York

Jan Thomas, Massey University

Stephen E. Thorsett and Carol S. Long, Willamette University

Adam Tickell, University of Sussex

Lara Tiedens, Scripps College

Brad Toben, Baylor Law School

Tim Tracy, University of Kentucky

Elizabeth Treasure, Aberystwyth University

Maurizio Trevisan, CUNY Graduate Center and City College of New York

Walter Tribley, Monterey Peninsula College

Titilayo Ufomata, Hobart & William Smith Colleges

Kalervo Väänänen, University of Turku

Albert Van Jaarsveld, University of KwaZulu Natal

Katharine Viner, Editor of The Guardian, GATE

Isabella Vitti, Editor, Routledge

Torbjörn Von Schantz, Lund University

Robbyn Wacker, University of Northern Colorado

Susan Walsh, Southern Oregon University

Kent Waltersson, Linköping University

Ching-Hua Wang, California State University, Sacramento

David Wantz, University of Indianapolis

Karan L. Watson, Texas A&M University

Michael Weber, Universität Ulm, Baden-Württemberg

Karen Weddle-West, University of Memphis

Susan Wente, Vanderbilt University

Jon Western, Mount Holyoke College

Michele G. Wheatly, Syracuse University

Darrell P. Wheeler, University at Albany SUNY

Kevin Whitaker, University of Alabama

Craig White, University of New Mexico

A. Dale Whittaker, University of Central Florida

Michael R. Wick, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Jonathan Wickert, Iowa State University

Ralph Wilcox, University of South Florida

Stephen C. Wilhite, Widener University

John P. Wilkin, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

David S. Wilkinson, McMaster University

Ken Wissoker, Editorial Director, Duke University Press

Marjorie Wonham, Quest University Canada

S. David Wu, George Mason University

Alice Yang, University of California, Santa Cruz

Charlotte Yates, University of Guelph

Mary Jo Zembar, Wittenberg University

Stuart Zola, Emory University

John Zomchick, University of Tennessee

Charles F. Zukoski, SUNY at Buffalo

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