From Jackson v. Wright, decided yesterday by Judge Amos Mazzant (E.D. Tex.):
This case stems from the suppression of academic scholarship at the University of North Texas …. UNT is a public institution that hales itself as an academy through which students and faculty may, among other things, "publish … and/or display their scholarship freely as appropriate to their respective UNT-assigned roles and responsibilities."
But as the Plaintiff in this matter is now aware, pressures from offended constituents can overshadow promises of academic freedom.
Plaintiff Dr. Timothy Jackson is a professor and scholar of music theory at UNT. He has dedicated much of his 40-year career to studying Heinrich Schenker …, an Austrian Jew who developed a system of music theory that became influential in the United States after World War II. Prior to this lawsuit, UNT was home to, and Plaintiff directed, the Center for Schenkerian Studies. Plaintiff was also a founding member of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies …, which was formerly published by the UNT Press.
Plaintiff's area of expertise became a topic of controversy in November 2019 at a convention of the Society for Music Theory. Philip Ewell, a Black professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, delivered for the Society a plenary address titled "Music Theory's White Racial Frame." During this talk, Professor Ewell critiqued the discipline of music theory for its "deep-seated whiteness" and described Schenker as "an ardent racist and German nationalist." In a paper later published on this talk, Professor Ewell argued that "Schenkerian theory is an institutionalized racial structure … that exists to benefit members of the dominant white race of music theory."
As a lead editor of the Journal (of which Schenker is the namesake), Plaintiff—with the help of his colleagues and his assistant editor, Levi Walls—organized a symposium and invited music scholars to submit papers in response to Professor Ewell's talk and publication.
The Journal sent a call for papers to members of the Society for Music Theory, including Professor Ewell. Walls assisted with the symposium in nearly every aspect, from its inception to its publication. Notably, the idea for the symposium originated in an email chain between Plaintiff and Walls.
The symposium contributions reflected a range of views on Professor Ewell's arguments and were published in the Journal in July 2020. Plaintiff contributed one of the pieces, which accuses Professor Ewell of quoting Schenker without context, failing to discuss the evolution of Schenker's views on race during his lifetime, and refusing to acknowledge that Schenker was a victim of anti-Semitism.
Plaintiff also suggested Professor Ewell's criticisms of Schenker might themselves have constituted anti-Semitism. In support of this contention, Plaintiff cited studies purportedly classifying Black people as more likely to hold anti-Semitic views than whites. Plaintiff closed his article by asserting that the paucity of African American involvement in music theory discipline results from "few grow[ing] up in homes where classical music is profoundly valued, and therefore … lack[ing] the necessary background."
The backlash was swift. Professors across the country circulated emails and "led [a] social media charge" condemning the symposium. The Executive Board of the Society for Music Theory issued a letter, stating, among other things, "[t]he conception and execution of [the] symposium failed to meet the ethical, professional, and scholarly standards of our discipline." Further, a number of UNT graduate students circulated a statement (the "Student Statement") denouncing the Journal's "platforming of racist sentiments" and calling for potential removal of Plaintiff from the Journal for his "actions … both past and present" that were "particularly racist and unacceptable." One defendant in this case published the Student Statement on her Twitter feed.
