Brian McCall, Chancellor, Texas State University

Kelly Damphousse, President, Texas State University

Pranesh Aswath, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Texas State University

Vedaraman Sriraman, Senior Vice-Provost, Texas State University

Thillainatarajan Sivakumaran, Vice President of TXST Global, Texas State University

Steven Lee, Dionicio Flores, Charlie Amato, Duke Austin, Sheila Faske, Russell Gordy, Tom Long, William Scott, Alan Tinsley, and Donovan Brown, Board of Regents, Texas State University

Dear Chancellor McCall, President Damphousse, Provost Aswath, Senior Vice-Provost Sriraman, Vice President Sivakumaran, and the Regents of Texas State University,

We are deeply concerned by Texas State University’s (TXST) decision to remove Professor Idris Robinson from his role as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. Upon examination of the available evidence, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Professor Robinson’s removal was politically motivated and based on his speech, which violates academic freedom, the First Amendment, and university policy. Furthermore, we believe the university may have failed to follow its own procedural protocols during his removal.

On June 6, 2025, Professor Robinson received an email from Senior Vice-Provost Vedaraman Sriraman informing him that he was being put on administrative leave  “one day after online activists demanded his termination in connection with a speech he gave as a private citizen on a matter of public concern in the Summer of 2024,” entitled “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance.” “Scarcely a month after that, he was notified that his contract would not be renewed and that his employment at Texas State will terminate on May 31, 2026,” according to a lawsuit filed by Professor Robinson’s lawyers.

The lawsuit also states that “during his time TXST, Professor Robinson never received a negative review, and his performance was always rated ‘excellent.’” Indeed, as Professor Robinson’s lawsuit further indicates, only three months before his termination, TXST’s Personnel Committee wrote: “The committee believes Idris will continue to make significant contributions to the Department in the years to come and is making excellent progress toward tenure and promotion in all three areas.”

Furthermore, TXST Rules explicitly state: “When the faculty member speaks or writes as a citizen, the faculty member should be free from Component [i.e. TXST as a component of the Texas State University System] censorship or discipline.” And yet Professor Robinson has been both censored and disciplined (indeed, fired) precisely for speaking as a citizen.

In September 2025, the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) wrote a letter addressed to deans, department chairs, and academic administrators in Texas to remind them of their “obligations to protect academic freedom and due process. These principles are not optional. The First Amendment to the US Constitution—the ultimate binding legal authority in the United States—requires administrators to uphold these principles and courts may hold administrators personally liable for violations of these principles. They are also essential to the integrity of higher education institutions and the trust placed in them by students and the public.”  Professor Robinson’s removal is nothing less than an assault on the principle of academic freedom. Indeed, violations of the academic freedom of Palestinians and their allies in North America have increased by 305% since 2022. 

Swift, principled action by individual academics and academic institutions is required to counteract this trend. We, the undersigned, condemn Professor Robinson’s removal and demand that Texas State University reinstate him immediately. We also call for an academic boycott of Texas State University until such time as Professor Robinson has been reinstated, above all a ban on giving talks at the University, irrespective of academic field. We also encourage individual academics and academic institutions and departments to write and publish letters to TXST officials supporting Professor Robinson’s immediate reinstatement (including the chancellor, the administrators, and the board of regents).

This letter has been endorsed by the Texas State Employees Union. Their letter (co-written by the Texas AFL-CIO) can be found here.

(Please write your full name in the "First Name" box, and your academic position and institution, if applicable, in the "Last Name" box. Institutional affiliations provided here are for identification purposes only and do not imply institutional endorsement.)

Signatories (Last Update: April 20,  2026, 9.16pm)

Sara Aronowitz, Associate Professor, University of Toronto

Bianca Waked, Ph.D. Candidate, Cornell Society for the Humanities

Tarek R. Dika, Associate Professor, University of Toronto

Brian Leiter, Llewellyn Professor, University of Chicago

Zeyad El Nabolsy, Assistant Professor, York University

Yarden Katz, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan

Audrey Yap, Professor, University of Victoria

Chad Kidd, Assistant Professor, City College of New York

Raja Halwani, Associate Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Matthew Shields, Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University

Reza Hadisi, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

G. Anthony Bruno, Assistant Professor, Royal Holloway University

Joseph Levine, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

David Kishik, Professor, Emerson College

Hilary Kornblith, Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Tony Kelso, Professor Emeritus, Iona College

Enrique Castillo, Lecturer, Texas State University

Adrian Johnston, Distinguished Professor, University of New Mexico

Sara Abdollahi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University

Harley Miller, Digital Design Specialist, Texas State University

Ethan Grothues, System Support Specialist, Texas State University

Zahi Zalloua, Cushing Eells Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Whitman College

Tom Alter, Professor (Until October 2025), Texas State University

Jeffrey Roland, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Jordan Harold, Lecturer, University of East Anglia

John Harfouch, Associate Professor, University of Alabama, Huntsville

Jared Ware, Railroad Commission of Texas and United States Military Academy

Dion Nania, Lecturer, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Mary Rambaran-Olms, Independent Scholar

Nelli Sargsyan, Associate Professor, Emerson College

Kendall McClellan, Lecturer, California State University Channel Islands

Jamal Nassar, Professor Emeritus, Illinois State University

Lilia Wolf, Indiana University Bloomington

Conor Tomás Reed, City University of New York

Gabriel Rockhill, Professor, Villanova University

Pablo Muchnik, Professor, Emerson College

Matt LaVine, Associate Professor, SUNY Potsdam

Jonathan Ginzburg, Professor, Université de Paris

Ann Campbell, Graduate Student, IU Bloomington

Jairo Funez, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech

Jonathan Gingerich, Associate Professor, Rutgers University

Georges Rey, Emeritus Professor, University of Maryland

Nigel Gibson, Professor, Emerson College

Frieda Saedi, Independent Scholar

ShinJoung Yeo, Assistant Professor, CUNY

Amelia Slover, Lecturer, Texas State University

Sasha Weiss, Graduate Student, Indiana

Aaron Smith-Walter, Associate Professor, UMass Lowell

David Austin, John Abbott College

Julia Halperin Associate Professor, Emerson College

Corinne Hummel, Graduate Student, Claremont School of Theology

Siegmund, Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rachael Stryker, Professor, CSU East Bay

Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor, Emerson College

Tao ORION, Independent Scholar

Ted Rutland, Associate Professor, Concordia University

Brendan Rome, Graduate Student, Villanova University

Vasil Rokaj, Assistant Professor, Villanova University

Gail Buttorff, Associate Professor, University of Houston

Timour Kamran, Norris Square Community Action Network

Xochi Flores, Western Center on Law and Poverty

Finn Finneran UC Berkeley

Forogh Hosseinpour, Independent Scholar

Sam Binkley, Professor, Emerson College

Robert English, Assistant Professor, University of Mississippi

Hugo Sir, Associate Professor, Universidad de Playa Ancha

Nayereh Molaee, Ramtin Immigration Services

Moti Gorin, Associate Professor, Colorado State

Michael Stauch, Assistant Professor, University of Toledo

Johnny E. Williams, Professor, Trinity College

Hamja Ahsan, Independent Scholar

Mark Ralkowski, Professor, George Washington University

Samer Alatout, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sally Haslanger, Professor, MIT

Phoenix Herring, Independent Scholar

Feyzi Ismail, Lecturer, Goldsmiths

Christopher Zurn, Professor, UMass Boston

Catherine D'Ignazio, Associate Professor, MIT

Luke Roelofs, Assistant Professor, UT Arlington

Taylor Carman, Professor, Barnard College

Iain Thomson, Distinguished Professor, University of New Mexico

Martin Shuster, Isaac Swift Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, University of North

Diane Langford, Writer and Activist

Culley Shannon, Accounting Analyst, Lousiana State University

Joseph Jamison, Queen’s (NY) Peace Council

Bahadir Eren Catal, Ph.D. Candidate, Fordham University

Will Hartl, Ph.D. Candidate, Fordham University

Marcelo Brasil, Sweetwater Union High School District

Barbara Labiejko, Educator and Activist

Pasha Khan, Associate Professor, McGill University

James McCollum, Instructor, St. Louis University

Nicole Whalen, Assistant Professor, Memorial University

Samantha Kostmayer, Writer, Editor, and Translator

Hunter Bolin, Writer and Translator

Saberi Hengameh, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School

Bradley Warfield, Lecturer, The University of Texas, Rio Grande

Alicia Williams, Associate Director, Center for Interprofessional Collaboration, East Tennessee State University

Kristian Simcox, Associate Professor, University of New Mexico, Gallup

Alexus McLeod, Professor, Indiana University, Bloomington

Graham Bounds, Ph.D. Candidate, University of New Mexico

Roy Ben-Shai, Assistant Professor, Sarah Lawrence College

Mario Serratos, M.A. Student, University of New Mexico

Farhang Erfani, Associate Professor, American Univeresity

Jennifer Saul, Waterloo Chair in Social and Political Philosophy of Language, University of Waterloo

Siddique Alam Beg, Assistant Professor, Raiganj University

Matthew Boyle, Emerson and Grace Wineland Pugh Professor of Humanities, University of Chicago

Brian Montgomery, Lecturer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Nicholas Ray, Lecturer, Wilfred Laurier University

Cara Greene, Lecturer, Loyola University Chicago

Kate Barr, M.A. Student, University of New Mexico

Tanner Sparrow, Texas State University

Mariah Schug, Professor, Widener University

Margaret A. McLaren, Cornell Chair of Philosophy, Rollins College

Mark Satta, Associate Professor, Wayne State University

Jessica Avery, Ph.D Candidate, DePaul University

Daniela Dover, Associate Professor, Rutgers University

Jonathan Lee, Professor, Colorado College

Drew Nathaniel Keane, Lecturer, Georgia Southern University

William Lewis, Professor, Skidmore College

Rabab Abdulhadi, Associate Professor, San Franscisco State University

August Faller, Assistant Professor, University of the Fraser Valley

Gianfranco Casuso, Professor, Pontifical Catholic University, Peru

Louise Antony, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Noah Jefferson, Assistant Professor, Westfield State University

William Barnes, Adjunct Faculty, University of New Mexico

Dwaipayan Banerjee, Associate Professor, MIT

Jaime Denison, New Mexico Community College

Adam Hosein, Professor, Northeastern University

Justin Randolph, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University

Ian Olasov, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Lethbridge

Jaime Ding, Lecturer, California Polytechnic State University

Naomi Scheman, Professor Emerita, University of Minnesota

Christia Mercer, Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy , Columbia University

Ann Garry, Professor Emerita, California State University, Los Angeles

Robin Dembroff, Associate Professor, Yale University

Alison M. Jaggar, Professor Emerita, University of Colorado, Boulder

Joshua Williams, Independent Scholar

Shadi Heidarifar, Assistant Professor, Roseman University

Heike Schotten, Professor, University of Massachusetts

Stephen Campbell, Associate Professor, Bentley University

Dana Miranda, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts,

Jason Stanley, Bissell-Heyd-Associates Chair, American Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto

Nancy Fraser, Professor Emerita, The New School

Hent de Vries, Paulette Goddard Professor of the Humanities, New York University

Kaitlyn Creasy, Associate Professor, California State University, San Bernardino

Victor J.​ Seidler, Professor, Goldsmiths College, London

Derek Anderson, Senior Permanent Lecturer, Boston University

Ásta, Professor, Duke University

Geoff Pfeifer, Associate Professor of Teaching, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Matthew Brown, Professor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Alia Al-Saji, Professor, McGill University

Susanne Claxton, Instructor, Southern New Hampshire University

Jordi Carmona Hurtado, Profesor Permanente Laboral, Universidad de Granada

Jules Holroyd, Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield

Sukaina Hirji, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Kylie Erfani, Professional Lecturer of Writing, George Washington University

Lawrence Blum, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Rodrigo Karmy, Professor, University of Chile

Juliet Floyd, Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy, Boston University

Mery Castillo, Professor, Universidad del Rosario

Susanna Siegel, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Cailin O'Connor, Professor, University of California, Irvine

Katherine Kim, Associate Professor, Wayne State University

Emiliano Valle

Farouk Jaouada

Carolina at Charlotte

Elena Bahrami

Preston Carter

Carol Goulet

Parastoo Salehi

Nasim Shahri

Tran Dieu Tuong le

Joey Arefi

Sara Iranpour

Maryam Hedayati

Kelly Tinsman

Minoo Motohamelian

Will Fereshteh Mahrouz

Kat Gholami

Maryam Bakan

sima akbari

Gerardo Munoz

Carrie Bradley

John Homan

Mike Lundberg

Azy Salehi

Sheya Weiss

elnaz zamyad

Mystri Naziel

Sam Nasiri

Sadaf Parastesh

Goli Golparvar

Said Abbasi

Mowlem ghafari

Mina Keashvari

Zari Azari

Christopher Singleton

Scott Ritchie

Afshin Bahrami

maryse carignan

MOHAMMAD Moein rad

Hadi Jalili

Bahareh Azadeh

Farzaneh Rowhani

Maliheh Sarikhany

Jacqueline Jones

Mandana Samawati

Shahla Bahmani

mitra khorrami

Shirin Lashkari

Fahimeh beidaghi

Narges Javadian

Tina Kian

Kelly Becker

Raha Asadi

soheila Ranrezanitorkmani

Sima Ghandi

Soraya Sepehri Majd

Sarah Wall

Keven Parsi

Zahra Pezashkfallah

Parisa Rahmaninamaghi

nasim shafaee

Bahman Fattahi

Robert lynn

Nikki Heidari

Souzan Masoudnia, Newmarket

Sophia Hull

Steve Figge

Helen M. Thomson

Judy Bruce

Patricia Valiquette

Shyam Ranganathan, York University

Mira Kaplan

Matt Huss

Carol Petruzzo

Nan Coles

Ric Dagenais

Sharon Summers

Maureen Cooper

Michaila Peters

Hanieh Karimzadeh

Mark Warshaw

‏Tamer Alsebai

Christopher Young

Wendy Moore

Adam F. Naughton

Joey Faircloth

Taylor Wilson

Maryam Sharif

Christopher Putnam

Joshua Higginbotham

Aman Sakhardande, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Toronto

Michael Jennings

Bridget Simpson, M.A. Student, University of New Mexico

Susan Coppock

Joey Aloi

Mitra Z

Ricardo Teamor

Mati Rahim

Lawrence Maminta

Zahra Hosseini

Mana Ahmadi

Azi Saleh

Afra Ahmadi

Parnaz Abdollahpour

Tyson Batty

Mina Fa

Nazila Armandpour

Elli Georgopoulou

Ali Masoumi

Sah Rezaee

Vedanand Mohanlall

Alex Filliez, M.A. Student, University of New Mexico

Maryam Ahmadi

sylvia sb

Francesco Murano

Jan Heintz

Daniel Rodríguez Vela

Rival Dealer

Jorge Botero

Victoriano Jaramillo

Bob Johnson

Ray Monty

Julia Lohan

Elaheh Hamidi

Ann Ferguson

Çiçek Yavuz, Ph.D. Candidate, DePaul University

Mohab Younis, Ph.D. Candidate, DePaul University