Hundreds Demand Reinstatement of SAIC Professor Savneet Talwar
More than 400 members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) community have renewed calls for the reinstatement of Savneet Talwar, chair and tenured professor of SAIC’s graduate art therapy and counseling program, less than three weeks before the fall semester. Talwar was placed on leave in April after a student accused her of discrimination over a hypothetical case study assignment that mentioned violence against Palestinian civilians, prompting an ongoing school investigation. A petition released on July 20 by SAIC performance alumni Mary Zerkel and Michael Thomas, and co-signed by artist and alum Dread Scott, argues that Talwar should not be investigated for referencing Palestinians in an art therapy case study. The petition states that Palestinians are real people and that violence against Palestinians is a factual reality.
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This story was covered in Museums on the Move, Dissent on Trial