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The world moves fast. Daybreak keeps you up-to-date.
Enjoy everything you need to know to stay informed — on campus and off — in this digestible, efficient podcast. Daybreak is produced by Vitus Larrieu '26, Isabel Jacobson '25, and Eden Teshome '25 under the 147th Managing Board of The Daily Princetonian. The theme music was composed and performed by Ed Horan, and the cover art is by Mark Dodici.
Title: When the bubble pops: campus under national controversy
[Theme music begins]
Opener: For the Daily Princetonian, I’m Theo Wells-Spackman, I’m Twyla Colburn, and I’m Leila Siskind. You’re listening to Daybreak.
Intro:
In mid-August, a Princeton course made national headlines, weeks before classes even started. Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Minister for Social Equality, Amichai Chikli, released a public statement demanding a book be removed from an NES course’s syllabus.
The book is Jasbir Puar's The Right to Maim, and the course is titled "The Healing Humanities: Decolonizing Trauma Studies from the Global South." It's taught by Professor of Near Eastern Studies Satyel Larson.
According to Chikli, The Right to Maim contains, [quote] "antisemitic blood libel," rather than educational merit. The case for academic free speech, he argues, does not apply in this context.
The Israeli minister is not the only political figure who’s commented. New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer echoed his sentiment in an open letter addressed to University President Christopher Eisgruber on Sept. 13. But while big players clash over this syllabus, how are students in the class and professors in the department faring?
And when Princeton comes under scrutiny from national media and political figures, how is discourse on campus affected?
[transition music]
We sat down with a student in Professor Larson’s class to explore this question. The atmosphere surrounding the course has been so intense this semester that the student wished to remain anonymous. Their comments will be read by Twyla Colburn, a member of our team.
[Anon.]
When I encountered kind of this course, on the whatever registrar’s website, I was really excited because it really matched up with what I had hoped to study at Princeton.
Theo Wells-Spackman
Yeah, fair enough. I think that makes a lot of sense. Did you, were you aware of this sort of, like, kind of controversy that surrounded this class fairly on a fairly early on? Like, what was your kind of experience of that?
[Anon.]
I think that, you know, my general response is that it's been a distraction. And I think it's created a sense of uncertainty, fear, confusion among students. you know, there were some students who had no idea that this had been going on before they stepped into class, there were others who had been following it quite closely.
There really has been a lot to follow. In addition to Gottheimer and Chikli’s statements, the story was picked up by a number of national and international news organizations, including the Jerusalem Post, the New York Post, and Fox News. These articles, like the political statements, criticize the use of the book as a promotion of material that mischaracterizes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in what critics say in an anti-semitic manner. Rep. Gottheimer called the book’s arguments “egregiously false.”
But the student we spoke to feels that the criticisms disregard the academic context and crucially, the principles of academic free speech.
[Anon.]
Yeah, it’s incredibly important to have academic freedom truly protected, and to have scholars both, you know, professors as well as students to really feel that it is a safe space for them to pursue their, their scholarship and their ideas, even if people disagree with those ideas. I think it’s astonishing that, you know, so much attention has come upon this particular, one single text in like a long syllabus covering many other topics… There’s no context around how the text is going to be presented, what are the arguments, you know, for or against, you know, and so it's kind of astonishing that just the inclusion of a text in a syllabus should create this kind of reaction.
President Eisgruber agrees. In a reply to Rep. Gottheimer, he said [quote] “At Princeton, and at other great colleges and universities, we promote inclusivity and belonging in many ways, but never by censoring speech, syllabi, or courses.”
[music transition]
Daniel Sheffield
My name is Daniel Sheffield. I'm an associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern studies. And I'm also presently the Director of Undergraduate Studies here in the department.
Professor Sheffield leads the department Larson’s class is taught in. He wasn’t entirely surprised by the backlash.
Daniel Sheffield:
I should first say that, you know, we in Middle Eastern studies have, are, you know, unfortunately, somewhat accustomed to dealing with, you know, outside organizations reporting on our academic activities. In 2002, way back when I was an undergraduate, an organization called the Middle East forum, right wing or neoconservative Think Tank founded something called Campus Watch, which since that time has been reporting on the activities of professors in Middle Eastern Studies… So, you know, I had a feeling that there might be something like this, that was happening with my colleague’s course.
In other words, this isn’t new. From others in the field, there was almost an anticipation of this problem. It’s an established pattern — but it may be growing more extreme.
Theo Wells-Spackman
Is that like an unusual level of coverage for this kind of for this kind, of course for this kind of, like, level of study, I guess?
Daniel Sheffield:
Yeah, so what was really remarkable to me, in reading this, you know, coverage of the story was that, you know, this had all stemmed, you know, not from seeing any, you know, course content itself. The course had not yet been taught, as far as I can tell. The authors of these news articles did not even have access to the syllabus of the course rather, they were they were merely looking at the description of the course and Princeton's listing of courses, its course catalog, essentially, in which is given a list of sample readings…
And that, to my mind, indicates a new level of policing of academic teaching at institutions where, you know, just the mere mention of a title itself.
Theo Wells-Spackman
Do you think there was any kind of possibility ever have a policy change in the university? Like, did you ever think at any point ‘oh, you know, they might actually pull this’u?
Daniel Sheffield
I don't think that that was a concern. For me, the course was, you know, approved in the, as I understand, I was not Director of Undergraduate Studies at the time that the course was approved, but it was approved, you know, according to our department's normal procedures, which means that a sample syllabus was submitted to the DUS along with the reading list, along with the course description…
At any rate, the publication was peer reviewed by Duke University Press, … the work received the 2018 Award, let me just get this right from the National Women's Studies Association. So it's a work that in many respects, was not just typical in some ways for the field, but, but also one which had met scholarly approval and was well received.
///
Theo Wells-Spackman
Yeah, I guess last question would be…personally, like, as a scholar, have organizations like Campus Watch that you mentioned, ever given you pause about publishing something or offering a class, or what readings you select or anything like that.
Daniel Sheffield
Certainly. I mean, my own work pertains to Iran, and the history of the Zoroastrian community of Iran. I have, you know, in the last year, been very much aware of the somewhat contentious politics that have surrounded the protests in Iran and their reception here in the United States, …and I, you know, have, as you know, just seeing what has happened to other colleagues, and, you know, protesters enter academic fora, and so on, have certainly, you know, become more cautious and what I might say, in the classroom with regard to such topics, but what with what I might, you know, try to publish on with regard to things that relate to topics like, you know, Iranian nationalism.. So I mean, I certainly think that the national and international reporting on the things that we discuss in the small space of the classroom has a deleterious effect on learning and on academic freedom within the space of the classroom.
Clearly this kind of national scrutiny is somewhat difficult to bear in the classroom, and in scholarship. It’s changing what we’re learning, and what we’re writing. But Professor Larson is just the most recent example of this kind of critical media attention at Princeton. Just last year, Jenni Lawson, an alumna in the Class of 2023, faced backlash for her musical theater thesis project.
Jenni Lawson
Hi, I'm Jenni Lawson. I just graduated, Class of 2023. I wrote a musical — wrote and directed and was in a musical — called To all the Babies I’ve Killed Before: a Love/Hate Letter to Storytelling.
So, the story’s actually about writers navigating the creative process. It’s sort of obvious from the title, but the first part attracted all of the media attention.
Jenni Lawson
So what's funny about those articles, is I feel like, they would all be so different, maybe if they like acknowledge the fact that the title has two parts. And there is a second part, like they kind of just start with the first part, like to all the babies I've killed before, and then they like conveniently leave out the aspect where it's like about storytelling...So anyways, I was like, so in my own world that I didn't know about any of this until opening night, we were in there, like, an hour or two before the whole cast, like, you know, warming up, blah, blah, blah. And then one of my friends is like, oh, did you guys see that article? Like, that's so crazy. And I was like, why? What article so I see this article, and it's from some news outlet I've never heard of in my life called like, The Washington Examiner or something.
It was in fact the Washington Examiner, and soon Fox News as well. The conservative watchdog publication “Campus Reform” criticized Lawson’s work for [quote] “promoting abortion.”
Jenni Lawson
Yeah, so there are like a handful of references to abortion in the musical but I wouldn't say I really get into like, nitty gritty specifics of the political discourse itself.
To me, I just think we had a silly little article published about us and let's just go do the show and have fun and perform for our friends and community members. Right. But that was A moment where it felt weirdly serious. Because suddenly I was like, worried, you know, the way that they were putting all these safety precautions in place, which obviously, you know, looking back? Basic stuff.
Assistant director Layla Williams (Class of ’25) remembers the beginning of the play’s run.
Layla Williams
I think that was probably one of the big things, especially with the Roe v. Wade case that happened very recently. That was probably in people's minds when they saw that. And I think it's something that's very easy to put in a headline and be like, oh - killing babies, you know, things like that. And people easily like jumping on that.
//
It started off as a joke, but it definitely got real. And it got scary fast, I think…
Yeah, I have never seen that before. I have never seen Psafe, like, monitor a show. And I'm heavily involved in student theater like within the LCA within, like, student groups. That has never happened to my knowledge.
First there was a representative from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate students.
Then a public safety officer. Then two.
Jenni Lawson
I was just really worried about the safety of my cast, because Oh, my God, the last thing I ever want to do is like, put any of them in danger over a silly little show, you know.
Layla Williams
I think that the discourse got to the point of where the LCA took all of our names off of the project, except for Jenni. Because of the fact that all of these like news outlets were trying to contact us individually.
Jenni Lawson
It was just weird and invasive, so that I sort of felt like, if we don't respond, then it doesn't exist, kind of. And so that was just sort of the way we handled it was like, ‘nobody reply to these people, just delete their messages.’
Theo Wells-Spackman
I think one of the…accusations that I read as well was that because it was kind of a comedic story as well, ... the subject matter was, like inappropriate for, … any comedy…I don't know, do you feel like you're on thin ground at all? Or Thin Ice rather?
Jenni Lawson
People need to learn to laugh more. In general, like, I don't think like, Sure, there are some things you shouldn't joke about. But I think if you're someone who is like, affected by the issues that you're joking about, you have every right to joke about like, if I I'm from Florida, right? Like, need I say more?
Layla Williams
I think not only as like a piece of academic work, but also theater is very, it is very much a forum for dialogue and a form of discussion and a form of expressing your opinion. So in combination with it being a piece of academic work, I think that just makes you know, whatever you're trying to share more pertinent. And more like, able, I guess, in that kind of sense that you are, you should be more able to fulfill your kind of expression in that kind of way.
Both as a piece of art and a piece of academic work, the team felt that their work was well within their rights. But like their peers in the Near Eastern Studies Department, media attention caused them to question their own safety.
Layla Williams
Seeing the seriousness and the severity, and quite actually, like the fear of like the news coverage was something that I hadn't expected when I first signed on to the project.
[transition music]
When we take a class or submit an assignment, there’s usually a guarantee that the materials we engage with and create will stay within the confines of the Orange Bubble. It’s what allows students and instructors to take bold academic risks. But as political polarization grows on the outside, it’s inevitable that controversy will pop that bubble time and time again.
Jenni Lawson
And it was definitely a… a valuable experience to learn the extent to which random people care, I guess what's happening in… Princeton student art, and… use it as some sort of quantifier of… educational politics, which is not something I realized was happening.
Tag: That’s all for Daybreak today.
Closer: Today’s episode was written by Leila Siskind, Fikir Beyene, Twyla Colburn, and me, sound engineered by Eden Teshome and me, and produced under the 147th managing board of the ‘Prince.’ Our theme was composed by Ed Horan, Class of ’22. For the Daily Princetonian, I’m Theo Wells-Spackman. Have a wonderful day.