Yael Nativ is an Israeli dance researcher and sociologist who served as a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in 2022. She was invited in July 2023 to apply to return for the 2024–2025 year and submitted an August application stating her intention to teach the same dance course. After Hamas attacked Israel and Israel retaliated, hundreds of UC Berkeley students walked out and rallied in mid-November. Department chair SanSan Kwan sent a WhatsApp message declining to host Nativ, citing campus tensions and potential harm to the department and Nativ. A seven-month UC Berkeley investigation found discrimination against Nativ because she was Israeli, and a lawsuit was filed in Alameda County; the university did not comment.
Nativ, a dance researcher and sociologist, had served as a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in 2022, the lawsuit said. She was invited in July 2023 to apply to come back during the 2024-2025 school year. Nativ, "eager to return and teach again at what she considered to be one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world," sent her application in August, "stating her intention to teach the same dance course that she taught in 2022."
Israel responded with attacks that by early November 2023 had killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 10,000 Palestinians. In mid-November - about three weeks after hundreds of UC Berkeley students walked out of class and rallied in support of Palestinians - SanSan Kwan, chair of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, sent a WhatsApp message to Nativ, the lawsuit said.
Collection
[
|
...
]