MLA Statement on Watch Lists
The following statement was approved in January 2017.
Canary Mission is a watch list established “to document the people and groups that are promoting hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on college campuses in North America.” Similarly, Professor Watchlist tracks faculty members who “advance a radical agenda in lecture halls.” Watch lists such as these create opportunities for harassment and intimidation of those they name. By encouraging silence, they deprive scholars of academic freedom.
In Resolution 2002-1, ratified by the MLA membership in 2003, the Modern Language Association took a strong position condemning “blacklists against scholars or students on the basis of nationality, ethnic origins, and religious background as unfair, divisive, and inconsistent with academic freedom.” The Executive Council of the MLA has since confirmed the association’s position in statements deploring open-records requests that infringe on academic freedom and defending scholars’ rights to First Amendment protections in conducting their professional lives. The association’s position is also clearly stated in the Statement on Academic Freedom and related tool kit, as well as in the Statement of Professional Ethics.
The MLA will continue to uphold the rights of all its constituents to exercise their freedom to engage in political speech and nonviolent political action in the course of their work. We therefore deplore in the strongest possible terms any blacklists or watch lists that seek to infringe on the exercise of those rights, including Canary Mission and Professor Watchlist.