Princeton professor highlights protest investigation as university celebrates her award

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A Princeton University professor who was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow said on social media that the institution declined to quote her in an article on its website announcing her award.

Dr. Ruha Benjamin, an African American Studies professor at Princeton, was honored by the foundation for “illuminating how advances in science, medicine, and technology reflect and reproduce social inequality,” according to its website.

She wrote in a post, “Princeton chose not to include my responses to their Qs about the #MacFellow award in this announcement…bc I asked them to accurately recount my response to Q1 or to not quote me at all.”

On her profile, Benjamin shared the questions she was asked, along with her full responses. She wrote that she received the news of her fellowship just  an hour after university officials were “investigating my support of students protesting the genocide in Gaza.”

“What would have been a moment of pure joy and excitement was tempered by the sense that the same institutions that are quick to celebrate our accomplishments have been slow to respond to students’ demands to disclose and divest from genocidal violence,” she wrote, adding that the date of the award announcement coincided with a court date for 13 Princeton students who were arrested for occupying Clio Hall in April as part of pro-Palestine protests.

“I plan to ‘celebrate’ the award by showing up to court,” Benjamin said.

A university spokesperson declined to comment on Benjamin’s social media posts. Benjamin did not respond to requests for an interview.

According to the Daily Princetonian, Benjamin has been a fixture of pro-Palestine activism at the Ivy League institution. She is currently taking a sabbatical to finish writing a book.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip since Hamas launched an attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023. The International Court of Justice found in January that Gaza genocide is “plausible,” but could not make a final determination that Israel was guilty of genocide.

A report from the University Network for Human Rights — which includes contributions from Boston University, Cornell University, the University of Pretoria and Yale University — concluded Israel violated the Genocide Convention of 1948.

Israel has repeatedly denied charges of genocide.

A committee within the Council of the Princeton University Committee is currently taking public comment on a proposal from the Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest coalition to divest from companies that are directly or indirectly connected to Israel. The committee will ultimately send a recommendation to the university’s board of trustees, who will make the final decision.