By Nell Gluckman
December 18, 2025
The University of Arkansas flagship has removed the director of its King Fahd Center forMiddle East Studies and is considering firing her from her tenured faculty role — anescalation of a monthslong conflict between the Iranian American academic and theadministration.
In a Tuesday letter the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Brian Raines, told ShirinSaeidi, an associate professor of political science, that he recommended she be fired forcause. Raines cited as reasons letters she’d signed and her social-media posts expressinganti-Israel views and opining about other conflicts in the Middle East, in addition totestimony she submitted on university letterhead in the 2023 appeal of a case involving anIranian convicted of war crimes. The justification largely mirrored a December 5 letterfrom Raines removing her as director. Saeidi shared the letters with The Chronicle; auniversity spokesperson confirmed their authenticity.
“Such statements are likely to create a chilling effect on many Israelis or Jews consideringinvolvement with our Middle East studies program, and others, as well,” Raines wrote inthe December 5 letter. “It also undermines any perception of our program as a scholarlyand objective source of research and information rather than indoctrination.” Thespokesperson confirmed Saeidi had been placed on leave with pay “pending furtherprocedures.”
Saeidi told The Chronicle she is the victim of a smear campaign led by a political activistwho opposed her involvement in the 2023 legal proceeding. The university caved tooutside pressure, she alleged, and punished her because of her speech. She plans to fightthe decision.
“This is very concerning for everyone who is committed to academic freedom,” she said.
Some of Saeidi’s public statements did come to the university’s attention thanks to thepolitical activist, Lawdan Bazargan, who spoke to The Chronicle. Bazargan leads a groupthat “works to expose individuals in Western institutions who normalize or sanitize theIranian regime’s crimes,” she said in an email. In an interview, Bazargan said that whenshe hadn’t initially heard a response from the university, she then alerted board membersand state legislators. “It’s not about freedom of speech,” Bazargan said. “It’s about hermisusing her role and resources.”
Bazargan has also raised concerns about a book written by Saeidi, including allegationsthat she used material without permission. The book’s publisher, Cambridge UniversityPress, said in an email that it is investigating. Saeidi said she provided the press withmaterials that would disprove the allegations.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is reviewing Saeidi’s case todetermine whether to get involved, said Zach Greenberg, of the organization’s facultylegal defense team. It’s difficult and unusual for a university to fire a tenured professor, hesaid, and “it appears that the misconduct here involves speech.” Two other tenuredprofessors who faced criticism for vocal pro-Palestinian activism have been fired sincethe October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
The Middle East Studies Association, or MESA, wrote a letter to the University ofArkansas’s president, chancellor, and arts and sciences dean opposing the decision to remove her as director of the center.
“There is good reason to believe that this decision was politically motivated and takenprimarily because of Professor Saeidi’s speech,” the MESA letter said, “thereby violatingthe principles of academic freedom, her First Amendment rights, and university policy.”
‘Disruptive and Damaging’
The Arkansas dean’s December 5 letter about Saeidi’s removal as center director includesmore detail than the one sent Tuesday recommending her termination.
First, Raines wrote that he had warned her on July 1 about submitting a letter to aSwedish court using university letterhead. He said she did not include a disclaimer sayingshe was speaking on behalf of herself, not the university.
The 2022 trial in Sweden involved a case against a former Iranian prison official namedHamid Nouri, who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 1988 massacre ofthousands of prisoners in Iran. In 2023, Nouri lost an appeal but was later returned toIran in a prisoner exchange. Saeidi said her letter was not written in support of Nouri,but it was used by his defense team. She told The Chronicle that she informed a universityoffice that oversees conflict-of-interest issues about her planned testimony and was toldthat there were none.
Raines also wrote in his letter that on August 22, the university received a complaintabout two letters Saeidi had signed. In those letters she had listed her affiliation with theuniversity, but again did not note that she was speaking only for herself, the dean said.The complaint also mentioned social-media posts about Gaza, Israel, and Iran, he wrote.The university investigated whether the comments were antisemitic, Raines wrote, andcleared Saeidi in November.
The dean next pointed to social-media posts on X that were also “received by theuniversity,” he wrote. In one, Saeidi wrote that “Israel is a terrorist and genocidal statethat must be dismantled by international forces.”
“It is disruptive and damaging for the director of the university’s Middle East studiesprogram to post inflammatory messages of this sort,” Raines wrote.
Saeidi said she was advocating for “the international community stopping the genocide,”and “using the power of international organizations” to do so.
Raines also took issue with Saeidi’s posts and public statements about Ayatollah SeyyedAli Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. He cited a November post on X in which she calledhim “the leader who kept Iran intact during the Israeli attack,” and wrote: “May Godprotect you and the Iranian people from the Israeli regime.” Saeidi said she wasresponding to evidence that the Iranian leader might be assassinated, and she was gratefulthat, as she saw it, he helped keep the recent conflict with Israel short.
But her social-media posts, Raines wrote, “could be taken as advocacy for a militaryinvasion and destruction of a U.S. ally” — such as Israel. The posts, he said, “undercut anynotion of diverse intellectual opportunity,” and “are irresponsible for someone in yourprogram-leadership position.”
The dean added that she posted on X on December 3 that the university had approved herparticipation in the trial, “letterhead and all.” Raines argued that she had not receivedsuch permission.
In the Tuesday letter recommending her termination, Raines said the university hadreceived another complaint about a post Saeidi had retweeted on X. It was translatedfrom Persian in two different ways, but both translations included the phrase, “thrust thedagger from Doha into the throats of the Zionists.” The university concluded the postswere discriminatory and included “harassing content,” the dean said.
Saeidi said she often retweets posts with which she disagrees. Her other posts, she said,made clear that she is against violence.
The disciplinary case against Saeidi comes as the university faces scrutiny over its MiddleEast studies syllabi. In November, a state legislative office requested certain syllabi and information about an undergraduate scholarship offered by the center. Faculty memberswere unsure why.
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