A white professor at the New School in New York City is being investigated by the university for using the n-word while quoting black novelist James Baldwin, sparking controversy over the use of the slur in an academic context.

New School professor Laurie Sheck, who is also a Pulitzer-nominated poet, said the n-word during a graduate course this spring on 'radical questioning' in writing.

She reflected on the title of the 2016 documentary about Baldwin entitled 'I Am Not Your Negro' and asked her students why the title altered Baldwin's original statement where he used the n-word in place of 'negro'.

In June the New School held a meeting with Sheck to discuss her use of the n-word, which she used repeatedly during a discussion questioning whether it was appropriate to use in place of the word 'negro'.

Sheck says she's supposed to return to work and teach a course in two weeks, but hasn't heard from the university in light of the investigation.

White university professor Laurie Sheck (left) is under investigation for using the n-word during her class on black writer James Baldwin's (right) works in her spring term graduate course on 'radical questioning' in writing

Sheck, who has taught for over 20 years, says a white student objected to her use of the n-word, according to Inside Higher Education. That student was told by a prior professor that white people should never use the slur.

But Sheck says she used the word because Baldwin did and 'as writers, words are all we have. And we have to give [Baldwin] credit that he used the word he did on purpose.'

Speaking with university officials she said graduate students in the literature course 'should reasonably be expected to be able to discuss painful or offensive language and the various implications of altering the words of an iconic write.'

The university gave her guidelines for dealing with issues of discrimination and told her to familiarize herself with them.

But the investigation has sparked fury, with some saying the probe is misguided and hypersensitive as Sheck was using the slur in an educational context.

The probe has been condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (Fire) saying it 'warns faculty and students that good-faith engagement with difficult political, social, and academic questions will result in investigation and possible discipline.'

Despite the controversy, the university is proceeding with an investigation even though regulation states that complaints of discrimination must be logged within 60 days of the incident.

She used the n-word while discussing the title of the 2016 documentary 'I Am Not Your Negro'. In Baldwin's original works he used the n-word instead of 'negro'

'I have been left completely in the dark with the accusations against me still actively in place, and classes starting in two weeks,' Sheck said to The Guardian.

'Having taught at the New School with an impeccable record and consistently stellar student evaluations of my classes for nearly 20 years, this drawn-out approach appears to many as an unnecessarily callous and insensitive treatment of a devoted and long time faculty member.'

In response to Fire's call for the probe to be ended, The New School said it is 'proud to be a place that embraces rigorous academic inquiry, diverse perspectives and respectful debate' but 'maintains confidentiality regarding personal issues'.

PEN America, a nonprofit that defends free expression, has joined the call for the investigation to end.

'Some words are so heinous that one can never expect to say them without some risk of offence,' Jonathan Friedman, PEN’s project director for campus free speech, said. 'But this is a case where intent matters. There is a distinction to be made between a racial slur wielded against someone and a quote used for pedagogical purposes in a class on.'

Sheck says she's supposed to teach her class when term begins in two weeks, but hasn't heard from the university in light of the investigation. The New School's Manhattan campus pictured above

'The New School cannot and must not discipline a professor for speech that is protected by the principle of academic freedom,' the statement added.

Sheck says if the school refuses to let her teach again, it would be a violation of her rights.

'PEN has warned them that to act against me would be to violate academic freedom. If a university can censure a teacher for quoting James Baldwin and raising with graduate students – students who are aspiring writers – the issues involved in changing the words of an iconic American writer, then surely much is threatened and much is at stake, for thousands of people teaching throughout this country,' she said.