Gawker
Dr. Andrew Trees, the author of a roman a clef about posh Riverdale prep school Horace Mann, remains fired from that institution. But his friends and former colleagues have rallied together on his behalf! Over 60 academics signed a letter to the editor of the Horace Mann Record—which was then prevented from publishing the letter by head of school Tom Kelly. Even new Record editor Elyssa Spitzer (yes, that's Eliot's daughter!) could not sway the discourse in the direction of free speech. The unprinted letter is after the jump.
Dear Editor,We were shocked and disappointed that the Horace Mann school would dismiss a faculty member for writing a novel, and we applaud the many Horace Mann students who courageously and thoughtfully protested this action and advocated for academic freedom. This shows Horace Mann students at their finest.
We believe that academic freedom should be the cornerstone of an educational institution. In our own work and in our classrooms, we strive to create an environment where students and faculty are free to think critically. We believe this is crucial not just for our schools but for our country. As the Horace Mann student petition stated, "democracy is a primary ethical value that [can] be promoted and protected best through an educational system that respects academic freedom." We agree that a free and democratic society demands actively engaged citizens who are willing to question the world around them.
Given Horace Mann's reputation, we believed that the school would consider academic freedom a principle to be celebrated, rather than an action to be punished. Restrictions on academic freedom invariably have chilling effects. We can only imagine the impact this will have on the entire community at Horace Mann and the various ways it will now hinder the school's efforts to provide a free and challenging intellectual environment.
Sincerely,
Edward Ayers
President of the University of Richmond (beginning July 2007); Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History, University of Virginia; Recipient of the Bancroft Prize (2004), Albert J. Beveridge Award, and J. Willard Hurst Prize
Julian Bond
Professor, Department of History, University of Virginia; Chairman NAACP
Brian Balogh
Mayo Distinguished Teaching Professor of History; Co-Director American Political Development Program, University of Virginia
Eileen Boris
Professor and Hull Chair of Women's History and Affiliate Professor of History and Law and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Recipient of the Philip Taft Prize (1994)
William Chafe
Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History; Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Duke University;
Katherine Charron
Assistant Professor of History, North Carolina State University
Paul Clemens
Professor of History; Chair of History Department, Rutgers University
Andrew Cohen
Assistant Professor of History, Syracuse University
Stephen Cushman
Professor of English, University of Virginia
Victoria de Grazia (HM Parent 2002)
Professor of History, Columbia University
John Dittmer
Professor Emeritus of History, Depauw University; Recipient of the Bancroft Prize (1994), Lilliam Smith Book Award (1993), McLemore Prize (1995), and the Herbert Gutman Prize (1994)
Greg Dorr
Postdoctoral Associate, Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jed Esty
Associate Professor of English, University of Illinois
Jon Earle
Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas; Ray Allen Billington Chair in U.S. History at Occidental College and the Huntington Library, 2006-2007
Ann Fabian (Former HM Parent)
Professor of American Studies and History, Chair of American Studies, Dean of Humanities, School of Arts and Sciences Rutgers University.
Eric Foner
DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University; President of the Society of American Historians (2006-2007); President, American Historical Association, 2000; President, Organization of American Historians, (1993-94); recipient of Los Angeles Times Book Award for History; Bancroft Prize; Parkman Prize; Lionel Trilling Award; Owsley Prize. Finalist, National Book Award; Finalist, National Book Critics' Circle Award
Susan Fraiman
Professor of English, University of Virginia
Joanne Freeman
Professor of History, Yale University
Scot French
Associate Professor of History, University of Virginia; Director of Virginia Center for Digital History
Paul Gaston
Professor Emeritus of Southern and Civil Rights History, University of Virginia
Gary Gallagher
John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War, University of Virginia
Grace Hale
Associate Professor of History and American Studies, University of Virginia
Nancy Hewitt
Director, Institute for Research on Women; Professor of History, Rutgers University
Hugh Hochman
Associate Professor of French and Humanities, Reed College
Michael Holt
Williams Professor of History, University of Virginia
Woody Holton
Associate Professor of History, University of Richmond
Watson Jennison
Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Stephen Kantrowitz
Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
Temma Kaplan
Professor of History, Rutgers University
Peter Kastor
Assistant Professor of History; Assistant Professor of American Culture Studies, Washington University
Jennifer Klein
Associate Professor of History, Yale University; Recipient of the Ellis Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians (2004); Recipient of the Hagley Prize (2004)
Juliette Landphair
Dean of Westhampton College, University of Richmond
Ann Lane
Professor of History and Women's Studies
Steven F. Lawson
Professor of History, Rutgers University
Susana Michele Lee
Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University
Adriane Lentz-Smith
Assistant Professor of History, Duke University
Marc Lerner (HM 1989)
Assistant Professor of History, University of Mississippi
Nicholas Lemann
Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism, Columbia University
Andrew Lewis
Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Hamilton College
Matt Lassiter
Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan
Nelson Lichtenstein
Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara; Recipient of the Philip Taft Prize (2003)
Danielle McGuire
Faculty, Horace Mann School
Allan Megill
Professor of History, University of Virginia; President, Journal of the History of Ideas
Paul Milazzo
Assistant Professor of History, Ohio University
Jennifer Morgan
Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
Andrew Morris
Assistant Professor of History, Union College
Amy Morsman
Assistant Professor of History, Middlebury College
Jenry Morsman
Adjunct Professor of History, Middlebury College
Stephen M. Norris
Assistant Professor of History and Director of Film Studies, Miami University
James Oakes
Professor of History and Humanities Chair, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Peter Onuf
Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor, University of Virginia
Rosalind Rosenberg
Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University; Executive Board of the Society of American Historians
Joshua Rothman
Associate Professor of History, University of Alabama
Anne Rubin
Associate Professor of History, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Winner of the 2006 Avery O. Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians
Reuel Schiller
Professor of Law, Hastings College of the Law, University of California
Peter Sheehy
Faculty, Horace Mann School
Herbert Sloan
Ann Whitney Olin Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University
Michael Socolow
Assistant Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine
Doug Smith
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, 2006-2007; Assistant Professor of History, Occidental College
Emily Straus (HM 1991)
Assistant Professor of History, SUNY Fredonia
Alan Taylor
Professor of History, University of California at Davis; Recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, and Albert J. Beveridge Award (1996)
Scott Taylor
Assistant Professor of History, Siena College
Timothy Tyson (Book Day speaker and civil rights lecture at HM, 2005, 2006)
Senior Scholar, the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University; Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture, Duke Divinity School; Adjunct Professor of American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Philip Troutman
Assistant Professor of Writing, The George Washington University
Craig Werner (Keynote speaker for Book Day at HM, 2006)
Professor of Afro-American Studies, Chair of Integrated Liberal Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
