FRANK, Joshua. "Without Cause : Yale Fires An Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar"

May 13, 2005

GRAEBER, DavidFRANCK, Joshua

Joshua Frank : Prof. Graeber, can you talk a little bit about the circumstances leading up to Yale’s decision not to renew your teaching contract ? How much of their decision do you think was based on your political persuasion and activism ?
David Graeber : Well, it’s impossible to say anything for certain because no official reasons were given for the decision and I’m not allowed to know what was said in the senior faculty meeting where my case was discussed. In fact, if anyone who attended were to tell me what I was accused of, they would themselves be accused of violating "confidentiality" and they would get in trouble, too. But one thing that was repeatedly stressed to me when I was preparing my material for review is that no one is really taking issue with my scholarship. In fact, it was occasionally hinted to me that if anything I publish too much, have received too much international recognition, and had too many enthusiastic letters of support from students. All that might have actually weighed against me. Again, I have no way of knowing if that’s really true, because everything is a secret. But I’d be willing to say this much : What happened to me was extremely irregular - almost unheard of, really. It happened despite the fact that I’m one of best published scholars and most popular teachers in the department. Does it have anything to do with the fact that I’m also one of the only declared anarchist scholars in the academy ? I’ll leave it to your readers to make up their own minds.