Former MLA Committee Members Ask, “Whither Academic Freedom?”
Eva Cherniavsky, Amit R Baishya | 27 February 2025 | Academe Blog
We write as former members of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities (CAFPRR). Both of us resigned from CAFPRR after the refusal of the MLA Executive Council to advance Resolution 2025-1 to the organization’s delegate assembly. Responding to the genocide in Gaza and citing the revised position of the AAUP on the legitimacy of academic boycotts, the resolution called on MLA members to embrace boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) actions against Israel. We recount some of the events that led to our decision and present three major concerns that arise from disallowing the debate.
Following the council’s action to preempt debate on Resolution 2025-1, two delegates attempted to interrogate the decision on the delegate assembly listserv. MLA professional staff, who moderate the list, rejected their posts. Instead, delegates heard from MLA President Dana Williams, who wrote to defend the council’s decision: “A vote by the Delegate Assembly could be taken by many legislatures as prima facie running afoul” of anti-BDS statutes in various states (our emphasis)….