Contrary to previous announcements, Dr. Azar Nafisi will NOT appear at Wellesley College on April 15.
Non-tenure track teaching faculty are string, and Dr. Nafisi would not take the chance of appearing while faculty are striking. She would not cross a picket line.
Her lecture–about her book Reading Dangerously–will be rescheduled.
Only yesterday, I posted a notice about the planned lecture by Dr. Azar Nafisi at Wellesley College on April 15.
Overnight, we agreed that the lecture would be postponed because of a non-tenure track faculty strike on campus. I fervently hoped the strike would be finished before the lecture, but the two sides are currently not close to a settlement.
Non-tenure track faculty voted to unionize as the Wellesley Organized Academic Workers, or WOAW with the United Auto Workers. The strike began March 27.
Dr. Nafisi will not cross a picket line, and neither will I.
The lecture will be rescheduled.