We scholars, journalists, and people of conscience stand in full solidarity with Written Revolution chief editor Prahlad Iyengar and Linguistics Professor Michel DeGraff as they face targeted attacks, bans, and unjust punitive action from MIT.

On Free Expression

As an organizer in the Coalition for Palestine, Prahlad Iyengar is one of the founding members and a chief editor of Written Revolution, a student-run publication that platforms voices of solidarity with the globally oppressed and collective action toward global liberation. Written Revolution has published five editions, including works of art, poetry, satire, critical essays, photography, and testimonies from the Palestine solidarity movement at MIT, filling a critical role within the landscape of student-run newspapers, magazines, and publications on campus.

In the 5th edition, Prahlad authored a piece entitled “On Pacifism,” responding to the book Pacifism as Pathology by Ward Churchill, which criticizes the role of strategic pacifism within movements on the political left. Prahlad’s essay adopts this framework of analysis and applies it to the global Palestine and student movement, including discussion of self-immolation, civil rights era protests, and other pacifist (and non-pacifist) tactics. Prahlad’s article also includes an award-winning photograph of the self-immolation of Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức, as well as historical posters from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). We encourage you all to read “On Pacifism” and the rest of Written Revolution’s work, as well as Prahlad’s statement, at mitsage.com.

On November 1st, MIT launched a wave of suppression unprecedented in its own history. Without any due process, MIT banned Prahlad from physically stepping foot on campus for the content of his piece, citing “concern for [the] safety and well-being” of the MIT community. In addition, they have informed the editors of Written Revolution that they “are directed to no longer distribute this issue of Written Revolution on MIT’s campus… [or] elsewhere using the MIT name or that of any MIT-recognized organization.” MIT has justified this severe action by relying on biased and racialized reports describing Prahlad as a “student-terrorist,” a label which has historically been used to manufacture consent for unjust treatment, violence, and dehumanization. Prahlad faces an imminent threat of suspension or expulsion in an affront to his First Amendment rights and an attack on the rich tradition of student-run publications.

On Academic Freedom

As the sole Black professor in MIT’s Linguistics department, Professor Michel DeGraff has been a distinguished leader in Linguistics for 28 years. His scholarship extends across Creole studies, the politics of language, and the critical role linguistics plays in decolonization and liberation efforts. His work has earned him the highest honor from the Linguistic Society of America, affirming his expertise and scholarly contributions. Despite this, over the past year, Professor DeGraff has endured personal attacks, racial discrimination, and severe restrictions on his academic freedom within the MIT Linguistics section and on the part of the Dean of MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences (SHASS). Most recently, he was removed from his long standing academic department of Linguistics and redesignated as a Faculty-at-Large within SHASS as a result of these targeted attacks and his responses to them in email, social media, newspapers, and magazines.

In an unprecedented move, an ad hoc committee was formed by the Department Head of Linguistics to block DeGraff’s proposed Fall 2024 course, Language & Linguistics in Decolonization & Liberation Struggles in Haiti, Palestine & Israel. The course directly aligns with DeGraff's ongoing research and his upcoming book, Our Own Language: The Power of Kreyòl and Other Native Languages for Liberation and Justice in Haiti and Beyond, set to be published by MIT Press. Despite its clear relevance to his expertise, especially given that DeGraff had successfully taught a similar seminar in 2021 on Linguistics and Social Justice, the course was rejected. The Department Head previously expressed personal discomfort with concepts that are germane to the course such as ‘settler-colonial,’ ‘apartheid,’ and ‘genocide,’ resorting to lodging profanities and calling him “antisemitic.” Subsequently, DeGraff’s ability to teach the course was called into question in an unprofessional and discriminatory manner.  It became increasingly evident that political bias, not academic merit, was driving the opposition, marking a clear violation of MIT’s academic freedom policies and AAUP guidelines.

To add insult to injury, as a consequence of his raising concerns via email with cc to various listservers about these attacks against his academic freedom, DeGraff faced punitive actions: his 2024-25 salary increase has been suspended until March 31st, 2025, with the threat of possible additional punishments. Even in the face of these challenges, DeGraff has continued his work by independently offering the course as a “People’s Seminar” with support from MIT’s Mind Hand Heart and MIT’s Women’s & Gender Studies, though repressive measures from the administration persist.

On Institutional Violence

MIT’s censorship aligns with the “Palestine Exception” to free speech, in which institutions adopt harsh standards and disciplinary measures to quell discourse and protest on Palestine. The so-called “exception” is not a deviation from free speech practices—in reality, it is an unwritten social, political, and legal norm that exposes the contradiction between our declared values and institutional practices. In both Prahlad Iyengar’s and Professor Michel DeGraff’s cases, MIT has enacted serious and long-lasting punitive measures without due process, a continuation of a larger trend of rushing to penalize those speaking, writing, and acting in solidarity with Palestine without evidence of clear policy violations. By citing 'safety concerns,’ MIT sidesteps accountability for its own complicity in these atrocities through its research collaborations with the Ministry of Defense of Israel and its industry connections with weapons manufacturers such as Elbit Systems and Lockheed Martin. By upholding this Palestine Exception as its new rule, MIT fails its stated commitment to open inquiry and exposes its devaluation of free speech.

We demand that MIT immediately end its unjust ban and refrain from initiating discipline against Prahlad Iyengar for his free expression in Written Revolution, and we demand that MIT end its undemocratic and repressive book ban on student-produced literature.

We demand that MIT immediately lift all punitive actions against Professor Michel DeGraff, including the suspension of his 2024-25 salary increase and removal from the Linguistics faculty, and reinstate his academic freedom to teach his original course. 

MIT must publicly commit to upholding the academic freedom of all MIT community members and protecting them from discrimination and political censorship in their scholarship, teaching, and advocacy.