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Katherine Franke

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Katherine Franke
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineGender and sexuality law
Institutions

Katherine M. Franke[1] is an American legal scholar who specializes in gender and sexuality law. She was the James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

In January 2024, after a Columbia student, who was a former member of the IDF, was involved in spraying an odorous substance at pro-Palestinian students[2] Franke stated she had concerns about Israeli students coming to Columbia “right out of their military service”.[3] An external investigation concluded in November that Franke had violated the university's equal opportunity and affirmative action policies; Franke appealed the decision.[3] In January, 2025, Franke said she had effectively been terminated from Columbia University[3] although the university characterized it as a retirement.[4]

Education

Franke received a B.A. from Barnard College in 1981.[5] She graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1986. She received an LL.M. and S.J.D. from Yale Law School in 1993 and 1999, respectively.[1]

Career

Franke began practicing law in the 1980s as a civil rights litigator, having received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to work on addressing social discrimination faced by people with AIDS. She then joined the New York City Commission on Human Rights as a supervising attorney in its newly created AIDS division.[6] In 1990, Franke was named executive director of the National Lawyers Guild.

Franke began her academic career in 1995 at the James E. Rogers College of Law of the University of Arizona and then taught at Fordham University School of Law from 1997 until 2000, when she joined the Columbia Law faculty.

Franke received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011 to carry out research on the costs of winning marriage rights for same sex couples and African Americans during the mid-19th century, and her research was published into the book Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality (2015).[7][8] Franke is out and has spoken on her experiences as a member of the gay community in the 1980s and 1990s, and on being one of few out lesbian professors earlier in her career.[9]

In 2018, Franke traveled to Israel as part of a 14-member human rights delegation touring Israel and the West Bank. However, she was detained at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv before being deported from the country.[10] The Israeli authorities accused her of ties to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.[11]

In October 2023, following the Hamas attacks on Israel, and Israel's bombing of Gaza, Franke co-authored a letter, signed by more than 150 Columbia faculty, entitled "An Open Letter from Columbia University and Barnard College Faculty in Defense of Robust Debate About the History and Meaning of the War in Israel/Gaza".[12] The letter was criticized in a subsequent letter signed by 300 other Columbia faculty members, which called for an unequivocal condemnation of the October 7 attacks and argued that the first letter justified the attacks.[13]

In January 2024, a smelly substance was released at pro-Palestinian students at Low Memorial Library on the Columbia University campus; whether or not that substance was toxic is disputed.[14] One of the students suspended in connection with the incident was identified as a former member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).[3] In response, Franke said the student was part of a broader problem during an interview with Democracy Now!.

We have a — Columbia has a program. It’s a graduate relationship with older students from other countries, including Israel. And it’s something that many of us were concerned about, because so many of those Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus. And it’s something the university has not taken seriously in the past.

Katherine Franke, Interview with Democracy Now![15]

In December, during a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said Franke was an example of discrimination on campuses during a dialogue with Columbia University president Minouche Shafik.[3][16][17]

Stefanik: Let me ask about Professor Katherine Frank from the Columbia Law School who said that 'all Israeli students who have served in the IDF are dangerous and shouldn't be on campus.' What disciplinary action has been taken against that professor?
Shafik: I agree with you that those comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory.
Stefanik: But I'm asking you what disciplinary action has been taken.
Shafik: She has been spoken to by very senior person in the administration and she has said that that was not what she intended to say.

Franke accused[disputed – discuss] Stefanik of misquoting her in the exchange, and sources agree that Stefanik misquoted Franke.[weasel words][18][19][3] Stefanik's spokesperson admitted[disputed – discuss] Stefanik "was paraphrasing" from the right-wing Washington Free Beacon, which itself was paraphrasing from another source.[16] Franke later told MSNBC that "we've had problems on our campus with certain people who've come to campus coming right out of their military service and that transition from the state of mind one needs to be a soldier to the state of mind one needs to be a student—[those] are different states of mind and that transition can be difficult."[16] In November, an external investigation concluded that Franke had violated the university's equal opportunity and affirmative action policies with her comments.[3] The external review also found that Franke violated policy by disclosing the name of a complainant against her and by reposting a disparaging social media post about the complainant.[3]

After this, Franke said she received violent threats via email and at her home:[19] "I regularly receive emails that express the hope that I am raped, murdered and otherwise assaulted."[16] Franke also said people posed as students, enrolled in her classes to provoke discussions, and secretly videotaped her.[16]

Resignation

In January 2025, Franke announced her retirement from Columbia, which she says she was forced to take by the university because of her critical views of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.[3][18] In the aftermath, many academics worldwide criticized the university.[weasel words][20] The Center for Constitutional Rights called it "an egregious attack" on academic freedom.[18] The United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, reported that Franke has been "another victim of the pro-Israelism that is turning universities, and other spaces of public life, into places of obscurantism, discrimination and oppression". Professor Noura Erakat, a human rights lawyer at Rutgers University, described the university's treatment of Professor Franke as "egregious".[18]

References

  1. ^ a b "Katherine M. Franke". www.law.columbia.edu. Archived from the original on April 14, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  2. ^ Mendell, Chris (January 22, 2024). "Protesters allegedly sprayed with hazardous chemical at pro-Palestinian rally, nearly two dozen report". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved January 12, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Saul, Stephanie (January 11, 2025). "Columbia Professor Katherine Franke Says She Was Forced to Retire Because of Activism". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 12, 2025.
  4. ^ "Katherine M. Franke". www.law.columbia.edu. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  5. ^ "My Must-Take Course: Gender Justice". Bold. Beautiful. Barnard. April 24, 2020. Archived from the original on July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  6. ^ "Katherine Franke | Institute for the Study of Human Rights". www.humanrightscolumbia.org. Archived from the original on July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  7. ^ "Wedlocked". NYU Press. Archived from the original on July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  8. ^ Bix, Brian (May 1, 2016). "Book Review of Wedlocked: The Perils of Marriage Equality—How African Americans and Gays Mistakenly Thought Marriage Equality Would Set Them Free by Katherine Franke". Journal of Legal Education. 65 (4): 983. ISSN 0022-2208. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  9. ^ "A Conversation With Out-Spoken Professor Katherine Franke". www.law.columbia.edu. June 9, 2022. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  10. ^ Cohen, Roger (May 4, 2018). "Opinion | Israel Banishes a Columbia Law Professor for Thinking Differently". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  11. ^ Kraft, Dina (May 3, 2018). "Two Leading U.S. Human Rights Activists Refused Entry to Israel, One for BDS Ties". Haaretz. Archived from the original on June 9, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  12. ^ "ProfKFranke Twitter". Twitter/X.
  13. ^ Forgash, Emily; Chapa, Amanda (November 1, 2023). "Hundreds of faculty sign open letters in debate around free speech, student safety following Palestinian solidarity statement". Columbia Spectator. Archived from the original on December 25, 2024.
  14. ^ Keene, Louis (September 3, 2024). "'Hazardous chemical' spewed at a Columbia anti-Israel protest was actually novelty spray, school says". The Forward.
  15. ^ "Professors Slam Columbia's Response to Chemical Skunk Attack at Pro-Palestine Protest". Democracy Now!. January 25, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  16. ^ a b c d e Quinn, Ryan. "Columbia's President Denounced Her Before Congress. Firing Could Be Next". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved January 12, 2025.
  17. ^ "ICYMI: Stefanik Demands Columbia University President Commit to Fighting Antisemitism on Campus". Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. April 17, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  18. ^ a b c d "Activists back US professor 'forced' from Columbia over Palestine advocacy". Al-Jazeera. January 12, 2025.
  19. ^ a b Betts, Anna (January 13, 2025). "Pro-Palestinian professor says she was forced out of Columbia University". The Guardian.
  20. ^ Mustafa, Maysa (January 13, 2025). "'Persecution': Outpouring of anger after 'termination' of pro-Palestine Columbia professor". Middle East Eye.
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