Savneet Talwar, a tenured professor in the art therapy and counseling program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, told the Guardian she was “stunned” by the suspension, which she said appeared to be motivated by “the mere mention of the word Palestine.”
“I call it the ‘P-word’ now,” Talwar said, referring to what she described as a repressive climate on U.S. college campuses. “There is no tolerance for the very word.”
The case study Talwar assigned in April asked students to develop an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer, Muslim woman living in the United States. According to the assignment, which the Guardian reviewed, one passage stated: “While she was not particularly politically active in her home country, protests in support of Palestine resonated with her on a personal level. She felt deeply affected by the violence against Palestinian civilians and was critical of the home government’s limited response.”
The two-page assignment mostly covered other elements of the client’s case, including her family history, relationships, and status as an immigrant, the Guardian reported. It made no additional references to Palestine or Palestinians and no mention of Israel.
After receiving a student complaint, a dean called Talwar to ask whether she had assigned “anything with Palestine in it,” Talwar said. She was then called into an “urgent” meeting with the school’s provost, and her class for the following day was canceled.
On April 17, the school formally notified Talwar that she was being placed on paid leave and forbade her from discussing the matter with students and colleagues, according to Talwar. The case study was removed from the online learning platform used for the class.
In a letter reviewed by the Guardian, a school official warned Talwar that assigning the student the case study may constitute “discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation.”
The letter noted that the student was also involved in separate investigations “involving claims by her as a Jewish Israeli related to alleged conduct expressing an anti-Israeli, antisemitic, and/or pro-Palestine viewpoint.” The official wrote that, despite being aware of those investigations, Talwar “gave an academic assignment that focused solely on the issues of a Muslim woman with strong sympathies for the Palestinian cause.”
In a separate letter to Talwar, a dean appeared to question her judgment for assigning the case study under the ongoing “circumstances,” according to the Guardian. “One of the reasons this issue raises such serious concerns is that there have been multiple, prior complaints alleging the creation of a hostile environment within your department,” the dean wrote.
The department had already been subject to multiple complaints and investigations about alleged antisemitism involving the same student, and faculty had been required to take anti-bias training, the Guardian reported. The school also faced a lawsuit filed in late 2023 by an Israeli student in the same program over alleged antisemitism, including an assignment that asked students to review children’s drawings depicting violence by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians.
A spokesperson for SAIC declined to comment on personnel matters or ongoing investigations but said the school is committed “to learning environments in which ideas are freely exchanged and students and faculty are welcomed, respected, and valued.” The Guardian reported it could not reach the student who filed the complaint.
Talwar, through attorney Rima Kapitan, submitted a formal grievance letter arguing that the suspension might itself be discriminatory. Kapitan wrote to school officials that they lack a clear “theory of discrimination” and said Talwar had “bent over backwards” to accommodate the student.
“Are SAIC faculty expected to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their course materials?” Kapitan wrote. “Are Arab Muslims unworthy of their own case studies?”
Nearly a month after her suspension, on May 13, school officials outlined other issues involving the same student that predated the case study, according to the Guardian. Those included exchanges in which Talwar allegedly characterized the Bondi beach terror attack in Australia as “gun violence” without acknowledging antisemitism, and suggested that the student “consider” whether to attend a lecture by a guest described as a “strong anti-Zionist activist.”
Talwar declined to respond to the allegations involving the student, citing confidentiality obligations. She flatly rejected that the case study she assigned was antisemitic or discriminatory in any way and plans to file a formal employment discrimination complaint against the school.