UNC has granted Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure despite Republican tantrums.
Here’s a welcome bit of good news: After initially denying Nikole Hannah-Jones (Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and MacArthur fellow) tenure for an endowed professorship at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media—reportedly due to political pressure from the majority Republican UNC Board of Governors—the UNC trustees voted yesterday to approve her tenure application.
Susan King, dean of UNC Hussman, wrote in an op-ed for the Daily Tar Heel that Hannah-Jones’ tenure case galvanized so many because “we are committed to the idea that this first public university was created to foster a society that would stand for values and progress.”
Hannah-Jones, for her part, celebrated with a well-earned drink.
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) June 30, 2021
[via NPR]
Jessie Gaynor
Jessie Gaynor is a senior editor at Lit Hub whose writing has appeared in McSweeney's, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, The Glow was published by Random House in 2023. You can buy it here.
