Identity of Speakers
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Peter Boghossian
Faculty/Staff
OtherPeter Boghossian was a professor of philosophy at Portland State University
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Faculty publication
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
University investigation not issuing in sanctions
Rally or Protests
Faculty responses (e.g., asking student to leave classroom)
Title IX or other federal statute
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
On September 8, 2021, Peter Boghossian published a letter of resignation from his professorship at Portland State University addressed to university provost Susan Jeffords. In it, Boghossian alleges myriad incidents in which he was persecuted for criticizing the university’s decline from a “bastion of free inquiry” into a “Social Justice Factory whose only inputs [are] race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs [are] grievance and division.” These include:
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- An allegedly bogus Title IX claim against Boghossian filed in 2016;
- The alleged appearance of swastikas with Boghossian’s name under them in the philosophy department and bags of feces at his office door;
- The alleged publication of an anonymous piece in the student newspaper penned by school administrators criticizing Boghossian’s satirical (and, some say, fraudulent) academic articles;
- Allegedly bogus charges being filed against Boghossian for those articles;
- Allegedly being spat upon and threatened by passersby on campus; and
- Allegedly hearing from students that colleagues were advising them not to take his classes.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner in response to Boghossian’s letter, Portland State said it “has always been and will continue to be a welcoming home for free speech and academic freedom.”
