"Good riddance," professors respond to Queen Elizabeth's death
Campus Reform researched reactions from several higher education officials after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
One professor tweeted out, 'Good riddance.'
On Sept. 8, Dr. Uju Anya, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), published a now-deleted tweet wishing the late Queen Elizabeth II an “excruciating” death.
The tweet drew national attention and CMU issued a same-day response condemning the tweet, but reaffirming its commitment to respecting free expression.
Campus Reform researched responses from other university professors following Queen Elizabeth’s death.
Dr. Paris Aslanidis- Yale
Dr. Paris Aslanidis, a lecturer in Yale University’s Department of Political Science and Hellenic Studies, tweeted:
Will we regain the right to engage in lèse-majesté right after the funeral or is it proper to wait until the corpse fully disintegrates?
— Paris Aslanidis (@parisaslanidis) September 13, 2022
Aslanidis is currently teaching 2 fall semester courses titled “The Age of Revolution” and “Populism,” according to the university catalog.
He is scheduled to teach 2 additional courses for the spring 2023 semester titled “Extreme and Radical Right Movements” and “History of Modern Greece.”
His university bio states he “studies populism in social movements and political parties, with a particular interest in the quantification of populist discourse and the intellectual history of the concept.”
Dr. Thomas Frampton, University of Virginia
Dr. Thomas Frampton, a law professor at the University of Virginia, referenced a 2022 Netflix cartoon to visualize his “current feelings about the monarchy:
Current feelings about the monarchy pic.twitter.com/ahT4HEgLh8
— Thomas Frampton (@TFrampton) September 10, 2022
The screenshot depicts a character from “The Sea Beast,” Frampton explained. He then explained that the film is “about the sham of monarchy and coss-species resistance to the forever war!”
Please elaborate
— Sarah Walsh (@thesarahwalsh) September 10, 2022
Frampton teaches “Civil Rights Litigation,” “Criminal Adjudication,” and “Rethinking Criminal Justice,” his bio states.
He “studies criminal law and constitutional criminal procedure with a focus on how legal actors, institutions and doctrines have responded, or failed to respond, to the dramatic expansion of the carceral state.”
Dr. Jenn M. Jackson, Syracuse University
Dr. Jenn M. Jackson, assistant professor in the Syracuse University Political Science Department, quote tweeted an Associated Press article announcing Queen Elizabeth’s death:
https://t.co/VM5ENgTkAi pic.twitter.com/HhrBIzTc7m
— dr. jenn m. jackson (@JennMJacksonPhD) September 8, 2022
Jackson teaches “Gender and Politics,” “Black Feminist Politics,” “Advanced Qualitative Methods,” and “Introduction to American National Government,” her bio states.
Jackson’s specialties are listed as “Black politics, gender and sexuality, political behavior, public opinion, social movements, [and] mixed methods.”
Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ohio State University
Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, an associate professor in Ohio State University’s Department of History, tweeted on Sept. 13 to not “ask the formerly colonized why they don’t mourn the passing of the Queen colonizer.”
“Ask yourself why you want them to,” he continued.
Don’t ask the formerly colonized why they don’t mourn the passing of the Queen colonizer.
Ask yourself why you want them to.
— Hasan Kwame Jeffries (@ProfJeffries) September 13, 2022
Jeffries teaches “Civil Rights and Black Power Movements” and a variety of individual study courses, according to the course catalog.
His university bio claims his expertise include “African-American History,” “US History since 1877,” “Human Conflict, Peace, and Diplomacy,” “Power, Culture, and the State,” and ‘Race, Ethnicity, and Nation.”
Jeffries tweet prompted a response from another Twitter user, who referenced Anya’s Sept. 8 tweet and stated such rhetoric “adds more pain to the world.”
Jeffries told Campus Reform that “her response is about as newsworthy as my tweet.”
Dr. Shamus Khan, Princeton University
Dr. Shamus Khan, a professor of sociology and American studies at Princeton University, tweeted that the number of NFL fans who held a minute of silence for Queen Elizabeth “overlap[s]” with “folks who cosplay minutemen[.]”
Bet the overlap between folks who like this and folks who cosplay minutemen is high. https://t.co/jbAQ42fRGU
— Shamus Khan (@shamuskhan) September 8, 2022
His university bio states that he “writes on culture, inequality, gender, and elites.”
Dr. Zein Murib, Fordham University
Dr. Zein Murib, an assistant professor of Political Science at Fordham University, tweeted that Queen Elizabeth’s death was “a weirdly good opportunity… to connect with all my child-of-immigrant friends[.]”
The queen dying has been a weirdly good opportunity for me to connect with all my child-of-immigrant friends today.
— Zein Murib (they/them) (@zeinmurib) September 8, 2022
Murib teaches “Gender and Sexuality in U.S. Politics,” “Trans Politics,” “The Political History of Sexuality in the U.S.,” ''Interest Groups in U.S. Politics,” “American Social Movements,” “Judicial Politics,” “Qualitative Methods (Archival Research, Interview Methods, Ethnography, Participant Observation,)” “Statistical Analysis & Research Design for Undergraduate Political Science,” and “Introduction to American Politics,” according to Murib’s website.
Dr. Johnathan Perkins, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Jonathan Perkins, Director of Race and Equity at UCLA, responded to news of Queen Elizabeth’s death by tweeting “Good riddance, colonizer.”
Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-ruling British monarch, has [finally] died at 96.
Good riddance, colonizer.
— J. Spencer (he) (@JohnathanPerk) September 8, 2022
Campus Reform contacted every individual and university mentioned and will update this article accordingly.
