Letter of Support

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As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Professor of Geography at Syracuse University since 2008, who was placed on leave for extramural speech in the context of intensifying repression.

In September 2025, Professor Sultana was targeted, harassed, and maligned on social media by individual and state actors, and media outlets for a social media post. Combined with political pressure, Syracuse University soon placed her on leave, which the AAUP Chapter at Syracuse University and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) condemned.

Syracuse University’s punitive response to Professor Sultana’s remarks exemplifies the growing chilling effect of silencing and repression, and vilification of free expression in academic institutions, where faculty, students, and staff are increasingly disciplined, harassed, surveilled, and silenced for their political speech outside the classroom. With universities capitulating to right-wing political pressure, dissenting voices now face intensified repression and growing fear of reprisal.

We issue this statement with an urgent call for Syracuse University to uphold its professed commitment to academic freedom and the right to free expression both on and off campus. Professor Sultana’s comments, made in her capacity as a private citizen on personal social media, have been deliberately weaponized by right-wing media outlets and online agitators. The ensuing campaign of harassment and institutional retaliation constitutes a grave violation of the principles of academic freedom that universities are obligated to defend.

Regardless of political or ideological differences, all scholars should be alarmed by the escalating pattern of targeting extramural speech to suppress critical voices, particularly those who are of marginalized backgrounds and communities, such as Muslim women of color, in our current political environment. Placing Professor Sultana on leave for her expression as a private individual undermines the very foundation of academic freedom. It also contradicts Syracuse University’s commitment to “unequivocally” affirm “free expression and free inquiry.”

The persecution of Professor Sultana is not only an attack on one scholar but a manifestation of the systematic assaults on higher education that have undermined the very autonomy of academic life. As educators and researchers, we affirm that the vitality of intellectual life depends on the ability to speak, write, and think freely, especially when such speech provokes discomfort or controversy.

Professor Sultana has significantly contributed to political ecology, water governance, and human rights approaches in research, scholarship, and teaching, not to mention her public intellectual work that makes academic knowledge accessible to a broader global audience. Thus, Professor Sultana must return to her critical work and continue her commitments to her students. To do otherwise would be detrimental to students who benefit from her expertise and guidance in their classrooms and research projects.

We stand in unwavering solidarity with Professor Sultana and with all scholars who face harassment and retaliation for their extramural speech. Syracuse University should be protecting Professor Farhana’s academic freedom and the right to free expression, including ensuring her safety—by safety, we mean providing real protection from targeted harassment and institutional retaliation, rather than selectively invoking and weaponizing the concept of “safety” to silence dissent, as we see time and again. We call on Syracuse University to immediately reinstate her, guarantee her genuine safety and due process, and reaffirm its institutional commitment to the core principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression.