Steven Salaita was back on the U of I campus this week for the first time in a year. He’s teaching now at the American University of Beirut. But he says he’d rather be teaching at the University of Illinois.
Salaita sued the U of I, after the administration and board of trustees rejected his expected faculty appointment. They were reacting to controversial tweets critical of Israel that Salaita posted during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict.
The controversy is the subject of Salaita’s new book, Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom. Steven Salaita visited Champaign-Urbana this week as part of his book tour. He spoke with Illinois Public Radio’s Jim Meadows about that dispute with the university, and how he’d like to see it resolved.