The Elephant Roundup: Nikole Hannah-Jones Edition

An occasional newsletter from Feeding the Elephant: A Forum for Scholarly Communications.

This week, we are dedicating the roundup to the tenure denial of Nikole Hannah-Jones. Hannah-Jones is the creator of The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and is the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The person with this title has historically received tenure, but the Board of Trustees did not grant Hannah-Jones tenure, despite strong recommendations from faculty. The decision exposes issues regarding academic freedom, race, and the role of politics in higher education. Currently, the UNC Board of Trustees is reconsidering Hannah-Jones’s tenure appointment. Next week, she will speak at the opening plenary of the 2021 virtual conference for the Association of University Presses.

• Thomas Moore, “UNC-Chapel Hill denies tenure to 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones,” The Hill, May 19, 2021, https://thehill.com/homenews/media/554439-unc-chapel-hill-denies-tenure-to-1619-project-author-nikole-hannah-jones 

• Katie Robertson, “Nikole Hannah-Jones Receives Support in Tenure Dispute,” The New York Times, May 25, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/business/media/nikole-hannah-jones-tenure-letter.html 

• Kate Murphy, “1,619 UNC alumni and students back 1619 Project’s Nikole Hannah-Jones in newspaper ad,” The News and Observer, May 26, 2021, https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article251693453.html 

• “Trustees Accept Resubmission of Hannah-Jones Tenure Bid,” Carolina Alumni Review, May 27, 2021, https://alumni.unc.edu/news/trustees-accept-resubmission-of-hannah-jones-tenure-bid/?fbclid=IwAR0fkAClNOKAg0LiEJ0Q_IbQtIyhP6fiTUiD8jUF3pIkgkh8-zIfna3DAWc

• Legal Defense and Educational Fund, “Statements Regarding Nikole Hannah-Jones,” NAACPLDF.org, May 27, 2021, https://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/statements-regarding-nikole-hannah-jones/ 

• “Statement on the UNC Board and Nikole Hannah-Jones,” The American Association of University Professors, May 27, 2020, https://www.aaup.org/news/statement-unc-board-and-nikole-hannah-jones#.YLY8PqFOk2w 

• Sytonia Reid, “UNC megadonor spoke out against Nikole Hannah-Jones: ‘Needless Controversy,” The Grio, May 31, 2021, https://thegrio.com/2021/05/31/unc-megadonor-against-nikole-hannah-jones/ 

• Colleen Flaherty, “UNC Donor Lobbied Against Hannah-Jones, and Her Lawyers Set Deadline,” Inside Higher Ed, June 1, 2021 https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/06/01/unc-donor-lobbied-against-hannah-jones-and-her-lawyers-set-deadline 

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