Smith College fired adjunct dance professor Olive Demar on Wednesday, Nov. 1, for “not meeting an acceptable level of performance” and “veering off course-related topics in class and focusing on your personal life and political issues; ending class early; and refusing to meet with [her] Chair.” Since her firing, Demar has said the reason for her termination was for discussing the war in Israel and Palestine.
“We were dispossessed of our own pedagogical space, to talk about it. My agency as an instructor was taken away from me by Smith,” said Demar.
Demar was hired at the beginning of the semester as an adjunct professor to teach DAN 540: History and Literature of Dance, a graduate-level class in the dance department. According to the syllabus, Demar planned to focus on a variety of marginalized perspectives in dance and the theme for the Oct. 30 class was “Space, Land, and Disposition.” Demar said that students were interested in learning more about the war in Palestine/Israel so Demar sent her class some texts on Israel and Palestine to read for that class meeting. The assigned readings were:
- An open letter from the Birzeit University Union of Professors and Employees titled “‘We are all Palestinians’ in the face of colonial fascism” (October 11, 2023).
- “Zionism, Antisemitism, and the People of Palestine” by Noel Ignatiev, which appears in his collection Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity.
- A poem by June Jordan titled “Intifada Incantation: Poem 38 for b.b.L.” (2002).
According to Demar, the Chair of the dance department, Chris Aiken, expressed to her in an email that he wanted to sit in on the class. Demar felt intimidated due to the power dynamic of him being the chair and her an adjunct professor. Additionally, she felt uncomfortable with him sitting in because the topics were sensitive and Aiken would be a cis-gender male entering a space of eight women. “He is a straight cis white man trying to enter a room that has no cis white men in it; that is a gendered microaggression,” said Demar.
However, that morning Demar said she received an email asking her not to teach the class that day. The next morning she met with the Associate Provost Denise McKahn and the Director of Human Resources Consulting Jacquelyn Robbins, who asked her if she had anything to say, Demar expressed she felt uncomfortable talking without a witness and was then fired in what she called “a five-minute meeting.”
“A letter was sent to me after this meeting stating that my employment at Smith College has ended effective immediately ‘for not meeting an acceptable level of performance.’ The Associate Provost did not use the word Palestine, but described my teaching as ‘veering off course-related topics in class and focusing on your personal life and political issues.’” said Demar.
Demar believes her firing was due to this discussion about the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and that this topic was not “veering off course,” as her firing letter said.
“This circumstance is fundamentally for me about movement, about bodies in space, about who gets to move where, how bodies in space are policed, how bodies in space are constrained, for me these are dance questions. This is not outside of the parameters of dance, this is dance, who gets to move where,” said Demar.
Since her firing, Demar said that “five out of eight of my students reached out to with personal emails being like, ‘What is happening to you, are you okay? We are here for you.’”
“I think it is definitely a complex issue. I would say that there was a political component to [Demar’s firing],” said an anonymous undergraduate student in the class “I don’t really buy that she ‘didn’t meet an acceptable level of performance.’ We were given a syllabus on the first day of class, and we followed that syllabus exactly.”
“She said on the first day of class that she really wanted to create a space where we could be vulnerable and wouldn’t have the pressures we had in our other classes. So that was like her mission from day one and I think she did a really good job of fostering a space like that,” said the undergraduate student.
When asked about class discussions of the Israel-Hamas war, the undergraduate student said, “I think that Olive made her opinion known and shared resources, and it was definitely handled professionally. It was emotional, I think that is just the nature of talking about issues like this, and Olive was emotional, but not in a way that ever got in the way of our learning.”
They added that, as an undergrad outside the department, they aren’t aware of what may be going on “behind the scenes” in the department and that grad students may have had a different experience or other concerns.
Other students said Demar was not fired because of her political discussions in class, but other behaviors that students in her class had concerns about. “Many of the graduate students had expressed concerns to the department throughout the semester regarding Demar’s belittling of students and general demeanor in class, never the content brought to class,” said an anonymous graduate student in Demar’s class.
“Demar’s cries of censorship and academic repression are inappropriate and, ultimately, inapplicable to the series of events that led to the firing,” said the anonymous student. “Please do not continue adding fodder to her fire and instead direct time and energy to doing what we can for the Palestinian people in this horrific time.”
Demar believes that power dynamics were at play during her interactions with the administration and the dance department Chair Chris Aiken.
“I am an adjunct, I have no job security, no salary, no union, and no healthcare. I am being intimidated by a man with tenure, with a salary, with all the job protections. This is power asymmetry,” Demar said.
The Sophian reached out to Aiken who said that the dance department “supports the core principles of academic freedom and critical discourse,” but declined to comment further as “personnel issues” are confidential.
Demar contacted the academic freedom committee at Smith and was told she could file a complaint. “To say I am not allowed to speak about political issues in my course, this is a violation of academic freedom at its core,” said Demar.
Smith’s statement on academic freedom says that “the faculty of Smith College may pursue freely any subject of intellectual or artistic inquiry and shall not be subject to censorship, discipline or intimidation.” It also says, “In the classroom, faculty are similarly free to determine the relevant content and manner of learning for the subject matter of their expertise, consistent with professional standards.”
The Sophian reached out to Smith’s academic freedom committee which stated: “Academic freedom is very important to the faculty at Smith, and we are unusual among colleges and universities in having a faculty committee to defend it. You can read about our procedures in the faculty code, section VI.C.1. Smith’s statement on academic freedom is the basis for reviewing any complaint that might arise.” The committee said that it cannot “comment on specific cases that may or may not be before us.”
Going forward, Demar expressed she has no intention of taking further action beyond spreading awareness. “My interest is less in fighting with them and more interested in publicizing what is going on politically. They pay me so little, they pay me $8,000, it is about what is going on with this genocide on University campuses at large, with anyone who is talking about Palestine is fearing for their jobs,” said Demar.
The Sophian reached out to the Associate Provost, Denise McKahn, and the Director of Human Resources Consulting, Jacquelyn Robbins. Carolyn McDaniels, director of media relations, stated on their behalf that they do not comment on personnel issues.
“I have taught at maybe ten different schools, and I have never been treated like this, his behavior is completely outside the realm of what is acceptable, and it’s gendered,” said Demar.
DAN 540: History and Literature of Dance is currently being taught by another professor, Melinda Buckwalter. The undergraduate student who was previously taking the course was told they were no longer able to be enrolled in the course.
Demar stated that her intentions going forward involve attending walkouts and rallies in support of Palestine and advocating for academic freedom.
When asked if she is interested in teaching at Smith again, she said that she hopes to sustain her relationships with students and said, “I care about the students. I don’t care about a money-hoarding, gaslighting institution.”
