Skip to main content.
Bard HAC
Bard HAC
  • About sub-menuAbout
    Hannah Arendt

    “There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.”

    Join HAC
    • About the HAC
      • Our Staff
      • About Hannah Arendt
      • Our Location
  • Programs sub-menuPrograms
    Hannah Arendt
    • Our Programs
    • Courage to Be
    • Campus Plurality Forum
    • Race and Revolution
    • Virtual Reading Group
    • Citizens' Assemblies Summer Workshop
    • Affiliated Programs
    • Hannah Arendt Humanities Network
    • Democracy Through Sortition
    • Meanings of October 27th
  • Academics sub-menuAcademics
    Hannah Arendt

    “Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”

    • Academics at HAC
    • Undergraduate Courses
    • Practice of Courage Courses
  • Fellows sub-menuFellows
    HAC Fellows

    “Action without a name, a 'who' attached to it, is meaningless.”

    • Fellows
    • Student Fellowships
  • Conferences sub-menuConferences
    Hannah Arendt
    Learn More
      
    Register Now!

    Fall Conference 2022
    “Rage and Reason”

    Thursday, October 13 – Friday, October 14
    • Conferences
    • Past Conferences
    • Registration
    • Our Location
  • Publications sub-menuPublications
    Hannah Arendt
    Subscribe to Amor Mundi

    “I've begun so late, really only in recent years, to truly love the world ... Out of gratitude, I want to call my book on political theories Amor Mundi.”

    • Publications
    • Amor Mundi
    • HA Journal
    • Further Reading
    • Video Gallery
    • From Our Members
    • Podcasts
  • Events sub-menuEvents
    Hannah Arendt

    “It is, in fact, far easier to act under conditions of tyranny than it is to think.”

    —Hannah Arendt
    • HAC Events
    • Upcoming
    • Archive
    • Citizens' Assemblies Summer Workshop
  • Join sub-menu Join HAC
    Hannah Arendt

    “Political questions are far too serious to be left to the politicians.”

    • Join HAC
    • Become a Member
    • Subscribe
    • Virtual Reading Group
    • Join HAC
               
  • Search

Amor Mundi

Amor Mundi Home

 

Literally Unmentionable 

12-03-2021

Roger Berkowitz
Professor David Bleich of the University of Rochester has been suspended from teaching because he spoke aloud the n-word while reading from a short story that had been assigned to the class and then by reading from an article by Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy, who is a prominent expert on the history and use of the n-word.The Academic Freedom Alliance has written a letter of protest that can be found here.

We are concerned about the University of Rochester’s handling of complaints involving Professor David Bleich. As you know, the University of Rochester received a complaint from students that Professor Bleich had said the “n-word” and other “four letter words” during a September 21 session of his class on Gender and Anger offered by the Department of English. According to your letter, he “read aloud” an article by Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy that included multiple mentions of the n-word. This apparently occurred after and in response to a previous discussion with students in the class about the use of the word. (We understand that there is a factual dispute over whether Professor Bleich had told the students that he would not say the word again in the future.) He has been suspended from teaching and a number of onerous conditions have been put on him before he will be allowed to return to his teaching duties.


In an email explaining the letter, the Academic Freedom Alliance, offers a statement from Randall Kennedy, author of Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. Kennedy writes:  “It is profoundly disturbing to see an instructor investigated and disciplined for grappling in class with a term that has had and continues to have a hugely consequential place in American culture.  The demand to make this term – ‘nigger’ – literally unmentionable is a demand that ought not be honored.  Compelled silence or bowdlerization is antithetical to the academic, intellectual, and artistic freedom essential to higher education.”

Footer Contact
Contact HAC
Bard College
PO Box 5000
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504
845-758-7878
[email protected]
Join the HAC
Become a Member
Subscribe to Amor Mundi
Join the Virtual Reading Group
Follow Us
Image for Twitter
Image for Facebook
Image for YouTube
Image for Instagram