Sunday, January 29, 2017

In Solidarity with People Affected by the ‘Muslim Ban’: Call for an Academic Boycott of International Conferences held in the US


On 27 January 2017, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order putting in place a 90-day ban that denies US entry to citizens from seven Muslim majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. So far, the ban includes dual nationals, current visa, and green card holders, and those born in these countries while not holding citizenship of them. The Order also suspends the admittance of all refugees to the US for a period of 120 days and terminates indefinitely all refugee admissions from Syria. There are indications that the Order could be extended to include other Muslim majority countries.


The Order has affected people with residence rights in the US, as well as those with rights of entry and stay. Some of those affected are fleeing violence and persecution, and have been waiting for years for resettlement in the US as refugees. Others are effectively trapped in the US, having cancelled planned travel for fear that they will be barred from returning. The order institutionalises racism, and fosters an environment in which people racialised as Muslim are vulnerable to ongoing and intensifying acts of violence and hatred.

Among those affected by the Order are academics and students who are unable to participate in conferences and the free communication of ideas. We the undersigned take action in solidarity with those affected by Trump’s Executive Order by pledging not to attend international conferences in the US while the ban persists. We question the intellectual integrity of these spaces and the dialogues they are designed to encourage while Muslim colleagues are explicitly excluded from them.

*This list is updated manually so your signature may not appear immediately.

Nadine El-Enany, Birkbeck Law School
Sarah Keenan, Birkbeck Law School
Arun Kundnani, Scholar-in-Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Sarah Lamble, Birkbeck Law School
Ruth Fletcher, Queen Mary, University of London
Caoimhe Mader McGuinness, Queen Mary University of London
Renisa Mawani, University of British Columbia
Humaira Saeed, Nottingham Trent University
Amanda Dalola, University of South Carolina
Eddie Bruce-Jones, Birkbeck Law School
Jenny Bunker, University of Roehampton
Professor Bill Bowring, Birkbeck Law School 
Mariam Aboelezz, British Library
Denise Ferreira da Silva, University of British Columbia
Thomas Kemple, University of British Columbia
Irina Ceric, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Peter Pawlak, University of British Columbia 
Tara Lyons, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Caroline Hodes, University of Lethbridge
Francesca Romeo, UC Santa Cruz




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