We, the student organizers for this year’s Notre Dame Student Peace Conference, are deeply disheartened by the University leadership’s decision to rescind Dr. Eman Abdelhadi’s invitation to deliver a keynote address at the 2025 Student Peace Conference. Canceling Dr. Abdelhadi’s address less than a week before the conference reflects a lack of respect for Dr. Abdelhadi’s scholarship, her valued presence in the Notre Dame community as a 2023-2024 visiting fellow at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study and the eight months of planning that we, as the co-chairs, have endured to cultivate a space of fruitful, intellectual curiosity and collaborative discussion on peace and justice in our world. As the conference organizers who invited Dr. Abdelhadi to deliver this keynote address, we were neither consulted in this decision nor offered alternatives to her abrupt cancellation, such as speaking virtually, speaking on a different topic, speaking on a different day or hiring outside security. This decision sets a dangerous precedent for restricting academic freedom and censoring discussions of Palestine on Notre Dame’s campus.
Our conference theme, “Unified Paths for Peace: Empowering Collaborative Peacebuilding,” inspired us to invite Dr. Abdelhadi to showcase the intersections of gender, religion and political identity and to highlight her ability to build bridges between academia and grassroots movements. Upon her disinvitation, we organized a faculty roundtable titled “Democracy, Censorship and Academic Freedom: How Did We Get Here, and Where Are We Going?” to fill the space of Dr. Abdelhadi’s keynote and address this unprecedented moment at this university and in our country. With her permission, we read aloud the following words of encouragement from Dr. Abdelhadi to a community with whom she had so callously been disinvited to engage:
“Dear Notre Dame Community — I am sorry I do not get to be with you today. Thank you to the student organizers for honoring me with an invitation to speak and for their tireless efforts. Since Notre Dame rescinded my invitation to speak on campus this week, dozens of colleagues known and unknown have stood up to demand that Notre Dame uphold the values of academic freedom and freedom of speech. I am grateful to you. You have affirmed the right of Palestinians — in the midst of a genocide — to name our suffering, to dissent to the complicity of our institutions in ethnic cleansing and mass extermination. You have banded together to proclaim that the campus is yours, it does not belong to the Dean or the Provost. It belongs to the students, faculty and staff without whom it would not exist. In this dark moment — both for this country and for the world — we can only survive in community, not in a defensive posture but in an offensive one. Capitulation and compliance with authoritarianism — from the White House to the Ivory Tower — will not save us or the institutions we hold dear. I hope you emerge from this episode stronger, more united, more clear-eyed in your opposition to authoritarianism and more committed to solidarity and liberation with all the oppressed people of the world. I look forward to seeing you all soon.”
To cancel Dr. Albelhadi’s lecture was to rob students from over 20 universities around the world, including dozens of our own Notre Dame community, from engaging with a renowned academic and activist. To cancel Dr. Abdelhadi’s lecture was to threaten Notre Dame’s mission to promote academic excellence and intellectual curiosity. In the words of Kroc faculty member Laurie Nathan, “The cancellation of Dr. Abdelhadi’s lecture violated the principle of academic freedom. This principle is constitutive of our University. Without academic freedom, we have a different institution, one that is not committed to free and critical expression, inquiry, research and dialogue.”
Notre Dame’s mission statement states that “the intellectual interchange essential to a university requires, and is enriched by, the presence and voices of diverse scholars and students.” This statement is not followed by an asterisk that excludes Palestinian presence and voices. Further, the mission statement asks each scholar and student to act with “respect for the objectives of Notre Dame and a willingness to enter into the conversation that gives it life and character. Therefore, the University insists upon academic freedom that makes open discussion and inquiry possible.” University leadership has failed to respect their own objectives. This decision threatens the very foundation of Notre Dame’s mission.
In a time when we can no longer rely on University leadership to hold steadfast to their mission, it is up to us — the students, faculty and staff without whom this university would not exist — to hold them accountable. We echo the sentiments and the call to action laid out in the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine’s open letter urging University leadership to:
- Publicly apologize to Professor Abdelhadi.
- Re-invite Professor Abdelhadi to deliver her keynote on campus before the end of this academic year.
- Clarify and revise its security policy to end the Palestine exception to free speech and halt unnecessary policing and surveillance of campus life.
- Unite with other educational institutions to collectively fight against the suppression of free speech and human rights on our campuses.
To the faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduate students and alumni who have supported the conference’s vision and opposed the cancellation of Dr. Abdelhadi’s keynote address, we sincerely thank you. Let us continue to walk the path of courage and resilience to preserve the values of academic freedom, open dialogue and commitment to truth on which our University is founded.
senior
Aria Bossone
senior
250-plus signatures in solidarity
Apr. 15
