The controversial Colorado professor who called some victims of Sept. 11 “little Eichmanns,” a reference to the Nazi chief who ordered the extermination of three million Jews, will speak on campus tonight about eco-terrorism and the U.S. government depriving its citizens of civil liberties.
Professor of ethnic studies Ward Churchill has made the news recently because of a report accusing him of plagiarism and other academic misconduct that may result in his termination or suspension from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Last year, he was scheduled to speak at University and at a university in New York, but both appearances were canceled because of security risks. Officials at the University also said his speech topic differed from the conference topic.
Churchill was recently featured in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times after a committee at CU-Boulder began investigating the allegations more than a year ago. Released on Tuesday, the report said Churchill deliberately plagiarized, misrepresented facts and fabricated scholarly work.
He will speak tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom. The event is free and open to the public. Donations are encouraged and will benefit those the FBI arrested and charged with eco-terrorism.
The North American Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network says those arrested are victims of the “Green Scare,” a modern parody of the McCarthy-era “Red Scare,” according to www.ecoprisoners.org.
Churchill was scheduled to give a keynote speech on the University campus in April 2005 about race, immigration and labor in post-Sept. 11 North America, but two program directors who sponsored the event canceled it.
A previously scheduled speech at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., was also canceled in early February 2005 because of his controversial reference to the Sept. 11 victims and because of threats of violence, according to the college’s Web site.
The two program directors at the University announced the cancellation in February 2005 less than two weeks after the Hamilton College cancellation.
Churchill is an American writer and scholar of Native American history and culture who specializes in the American genocide of natives. He has written more than 20 books, including “Perversions of Justice: Indigenous Peoples and Anglo-american Law” and “A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the Present.”
His speeches and writing often cover issues of conquest, genocide, political repression, cultural appropriation and continuous colonial resistance, according to a speech advertisement.
The five committee members who released the report on Churchill agreed that his misconduct was serious, but they could not reach consensus on a punishment for the tenured professor. Two committee members are recommending a two-year suspension, two others are asking for a five-year suspension and one member recommends firing him, according to the report released Tuesday.
For more information, e-mail [email protected], or call 687-1833.