Chelsea Manning Disinvited By Harvard

[Carolyn Marie]

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/announcements/statement-dean-elmendorf-regarding-invitation-chelsea-manning-be-visiting-fellow?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hks-twitter&utm_source=twitter

 

Carolyn Marie

[VickySGV]

[Dev]

Ah, academia.  A full-page essay on the retraction of an invitation without actually saying why it was retracted.  I understand they don't want to impart some intangible honor upon her, but they sidestepped nicely the issue of whether it's to do with her gender identity, her politics, or her past actions.

[Drea]

She is sill invited to speak, just not invited to "speak as a Fellow".  Obviously people complained about the honorific title "fellow" being applied to her although the details of the complaints were not enumerated.

[Charlize]

She made a great comment about being proud to be the first trans woman to have been stripped of a fellowship by Harvard.

I'm glad she will still be able to speak.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

[Tejana]

3 hours ago, Charlize said:

She made a great comment about being proud to be the first trans woman to have been stripped of a fellowship by Harvard.

I'm glad she will still be able to speak.

 

Hugs,

 

Charlize

Hhmm...Well from a purely humanitarian perspective, I'm glad she's not broken up about it.

 

I'm inclined to think that the honorific was not rescinded secondary to Ms. Manning's tg-status.  It is my understanding that both the senior fellow's resignation and the current CIA-Director's cancelling his appearance to speak at Harvard were secondary to the honorific being given to an individual who was convicted in court-martial of violating the espionage act

.

I'm certain that Harvard can find another ts/tg person on which to bestow the honorific, "visiting fellow" (i.e., one who has not been convicted of a major crime).  I mean, after-all, former POTUS-Obama only commuted Ms. Manning's sentence; she was not pardoned.  It's my understanding that the conviction states. 

[Carolyn Marie]

5 hours ago, Dev said:

Ah, academia.  A full-page essay on the retraction of an invitation without actually saying why it was retracted.  I understand they don't want to impart some intangible honor upon her, but they sidestepped nicely the issue of whether it's to do with her gender identity, her politics, or her past actions.

 

Yes, they said it was "a mistake" but didn't say in what manner the mistake was made.  The disinvitation did come after the resignation of a former CIA official and some serious backlash from other current and former government officials.

 

My views on Ms. Manning have been stated several times.  Harvard has a right to invite or honor whoever they want.  I'm not displeased with their latest decision.

 

Carolyn Marie

[Dev]

19 minutes ago, Carolyn Marie said:

Harvard has a right to invite or honor whoever they want.

 

Agreed.  My only issue with the revocation of the fellowship has to do with the fact that they're treating the original invitation like an epic blunder no one could have seen coming.  Whatever their reasons - however little that matters - the situation reeks of academic heads trying to placate someone.

[tracy_j]

I am not impressed by honorary titles in general. They often seem to be there to make a political point. I guess someone is in the doghouse for making the original choice as not being flavour of the current legislation.