Academics and Supporters Demand Justice for Dr. Shirin Saeidi

Note: Dr. Shirin Saeidi, a full tenured professor and director of Middle East Studies at the University of Arkansas has been unjustly dismissed from her position overruling a unanimous vote from a faculty committee investigation. Below is the content of a petition in support of Dr. Saeidi started last December. Over 650 academics, supporters, Arkansas taxpayers and University Arkansas community members have so far signed the petition. The list includes many of Dr. Saeidi’s colleagues from UArk and many top world experts on Middle East studies from US, Europe and Israel such as Rashid Khalidi, Ruha Benjamin, Juan Cole, Amos Goldberg, Suad Joseph, Ted Swedenberg, Rebecca Stein, David Palumbo-Liu, Tamar Katriel, Joel Beinin, Niloofar Haeri, Lisa Hajjar, Dana Olmert, Sahar Aziz, and others.

Justice For Shirin Saeidi: Stand Up for Academic Freedom and Integrity

We the undersigned are concerned scholars, professionals, members of the University of Arkansas and tax payers in the state of Arkansas. We join the Middle East Studies Association in expressing shock and alarm at rapid developments regarding Professor Shirin Saeidi, director of the King Fahd Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the UA. We concur with MESA that a “vicious public defamation campaign” of harassment and intimidation culminated in Dean Raines’ unprecedented decision to remove Professor Saeidi, a highly decorated, tenured professor with glowing accolades, from her directorship (Dec. 5) and further recommend her for dismissal from the university (Dec. 16). Dean Raines’ actions not only violate Professor Saeidi’s freedom of speech and expression, but also violate the most basic tenets of academic freedom and due process. On Dec. 19, an official letter from Arkansas Senator Dan Sullivan, signed by other senators further politicizes the matter by blatantly putting the government’s thumb on the scale in what is supposed to be a fair and impartial process.

Dean Raines’ first objection seems to be about Professor Saeidi using a UA / King Fahd Center letterhead without prior approval from the administration, a position that really makes no sense in an academic setting. But the bulk of his ire and the actual reason for dismissal seem to be about some of Professor Saeidi’s social media posts that Dean Raines finds objectionable. As MESA has noted Dean Raines contradicts himself in his Dec. 5 letter when writing:

"I understand that you have a disclaimer on your Twitter account that indicates you are not speaking on behalf of the University, but you are widely known as the director of the program, and in fact, if you Google your name, it comes up together with your role as Director."

– Dean Raines, Dec. 5, 2025

This stance from a supervising administrator – now apparently backed by Senator Sullivan– seems to posit that an Arkansas public university professor has no freedom of speech, personally or professionally.

In firing Professor Saeidi, Dean Raines offers no performance evaluation reasons. No academic investigation has found any professional conduct violation, let alone recommended any punishment. No student, faculty or other university party with any kind of grievance against Professor Saeidi has come forward, even though Dean Raines imagines that some could theoretically feel bad reading Professor Saeidi’s personal tweets. For the alleged social media activity, Professor Saeidi, a tenured professor of political science, has already been removed from her directorship, is to lose her job, and, given the public defamation campaign, be essentially rendered unemployable.

Most disturbingly, Professor Saeidi has been given no due process. She has had no chance even to respond to these allegations in any university forum or hearing. Dean Raines has been playing the judge, the jury and the executioner with Professor Saeidi. The American Association of University Professors states faculty must “…be given due process in order to prevent unfair, baseless, or politically motivated accusations from resulting in discipline or dismissal.” The public self-injection of state politicians, who literally control the budget of the UA, into the internal affairs of the university further underlies exactly why tenure and due process must be respected now more than ever.

This episode has been a major violation of Professor Saeidi’s First Amendment rights, and her academic freedom. “The concept of tenure was created to protect academic freedom” states the AAUP core principles. Professor Saeidi’s dismissal is making a mockery of the whole notion of academic freedom. The public is left with no choice but to conclude Dean Raines is appeasing the same politically driven lobby to discredit and defraud Professor Saeidi, and by extension, damage the entire university.

All this will surely cost the taxpayers of Arkansas who are not only paying the salaries of administrators, staff and politicians grandstanding in public forums and investigating tweets, but will no doubt be left holding the bag given the inevitable lawsuits on First Amendment and wrongful termination grounds. The UA students will also lose out on a beloved professor, one that the University itself has recognized, promoted and celebrated on many occasions.

We urge the UA administration to stop this insanity: Reinstate Shirin Saeidi to her roles as director and professor immediately, and seriously examine your academic freedom and due process obligations.

[ Sign this petition ]