When Harvard University denied tenure to renowned Latinx scholar Dr. Lorgia García Peña, the decision sparked outrage across the academy. Ethnic studies students held protests. Faculty signed petitions. Her case became a rallying cry for those who saw ethnic studies as undervalued or undermined at their institutions, despite university leaders’ promises to invest in inclusion.
During this moment of upheaval, a small group of faculty took García Peña’s plight to perhaps the largest academic forum of them all — academic Twitter.
In a social media movement they called “Ethnic Studies Rise,” the three professors — Dr. Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann, Dr. Raj Chetty and Dr. Alex Gil — organized an online roundtable to discuss the problems facing ethnic studies and a Twitter campaign called #LorgiaFest, where academics tweeted parts of García Peña’s work to engage with her scholarship. In support, Duke University Press made the online version of García Peña’s book, The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation, and Archives of Contradiction, available for free online for a limited time.
“We really wanted to express solidarity with García Peña, with other people like her, who in almost every case are facing challenges for who they are in addition to the work they do — in García Peña’s case, a Black Latina working on things that challenge a common and dominant understanding of what counts as knowledge, what counts as work, what counts as meaningful contributions to scholarship,” says Chetty, an assistant professor of Black literature and culture at San Diego State University.
García Peña, Harvard University’s Roy G. Clouse Associate Professor of Romance, taught courses on Latinx studies, Hispanic Caribbean literature and culture; performance studies, race and ethnicity; transnational feminism; migration and human rights; and Dominican and Dominican diaspora studies, according to her faculty bio. She also co-founded Freedom University in Georgia, which prepares undocumented students for higher education. Her tenure denial shocked colleagues who knew her for her strong credentials and well-respected, research-heavy work.
The public fight for García Peña’s tenure started as early as last spring with a student letter-writing campaign in favor of her case. Students held a sit-in at University Hall on Dec. 2 and a silent protest at a faculty meeting the next day where students held up signs with messages like “Want diversity? Teach our histories.” They also sent an open letter, which 200 students and 30 student groups signed, according to the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, alongside a separate letter from other Harvard affiliates.
On Dec. 9, a faculty letter followed, signed by 200 scholars across the U.S. and beyond, including famed authors like Angela Davis and bell hooks.
