Steven G. Salaita, the long-embattled professor known for a rescinded job offer and an ensuing fracas at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says he’s leaving the profession.
In a Facebook post dated Saturday, Mr. Salaita announced that despite looking for employment on four continents, he had failed to find an academic job.
“A number of colleagues have attempted to recruit me, but their efforts always get shut down by management,” he wrote in the post, which has been shared by more than a thousand people. “In turn, I often feel like I’m reliving the UIUC fiasco, which isn’t conducive to the kind of mood I prefer to inhabit. I’m easygoing, but I refuse to tolerate the indignities of a blacklist.”
Mr. Salaita is currently listed as a visiting professor and holder of the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut. He said in the post that he planned to write and lecture.
The professor became well known in academe in 2014, amid a controversy at the University of Illinois’s flagship campus. He was initially offered a tenured position there, but the university’s administration later rescinded the offer after critical comments Mr. Salaita had made about Israel came to light and drew fire online. He filed two lawsuits against the university over its decision about the job offer, and eventually settled the cases for $600,000.
Mr. Salaita went to work for the American University of Beirut in the 2015-16 academic year, though his employment there was also the subject of controversy. He had been given a yearlong contract extension, though it appears the university did not renew it again. The university declined to comment.
Mr. Salaita did not immediately return requests for comment.
