After a week of tension and scrutiny surrounding a UNC faculty member and his placement on administrative leave to review potential advocacy of political violence, the university is reinstating him.
UNC Media Relations shared a statement Friday morning saying Associate Professor Dwayne Dixon will resume his faculty responsibilities, effective immediately, following a “thorough threat assessment.” The alert said UNC consulted with several internal and external sources to conduct its review of “all the evidence,” and said it found “no basis to conclude that he poses a threat to University students, staff, and faculty, or has engaged in conduct that violates University policy.”
“The University continues to reaffirm its commitment to rigorous debate, respectful engagement, and open dialogue in support of free speech, while fulfilling our responsibility to protect the physical safety of the Carolina community,” read the message, credited to Vice Chancellor of Communications and Marketing Dean Stoyer.
Dixon’s administrative leave began on Monday after a report by Fox News published on Sep. 27 highlighted the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies professor’s ties to the anti-racist and community defense group Redneck Revolt, an offshoot of the far-left John Brown Gun Club. The report attempted to tie Dixon, who had reportedly spoken on behalf of the now defunct organization during a 2018 panel at Harvard University, to flyers posted on Georgetown University’s campus by the John Brown Gun Club seemingly making light of Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Sep. 10. At the time, UNC said it would investigate the allegations of politically motivated violence and placing Dixon on leave “protects the integrity of its assessment.” It also condemned the “tolerance of inciting or extending sympathy toward violence of any kind within the UNC community.”
Dixon has faced charges in the past for carrying a weapon at public rallies, including a 2017 anti-KKK gathering in Durham, with the charges ultimately dismissed. He also was charged with assault the night of the Confederate statue “Silent Sam” being pulled down by protesters on UNC campus in 2018, with that charge also dismissed.
On Wednesday, a group of UNC community members and supporters of Dixon rallied outside of the university’s administrative building asking for his reinstatement and criticizing UNC for its handling of the matter — with organizers saying the institution was “capitulating” to conservative activists. Both the state and UNC chapters of the American Association of University Professors released a statement criticizing the move as an infringement on Dixon’s academic freedom and free speech, while the staff union UE 150 called it a “blatant attack on worker freedoms and speech.” A pair of petitions also launched in the wake of reporting on Dixon’s leave, with one gathering more than 1,000 signatures and another specifically by UNC community members garnering more than 270 as of Friday.
Dixon shared a statement of his own through the social media page of Triangle Radical Events Friday afternoon, calling the incident an attempt to suppress his free speech and saying he would not be intimidated from sharing his personal beliefs. The associate professor also said he was “deeply grateful to the many people who leapt courageously to this struggle.”
“In challenging this suspension,” wrote Dixon, “my goals were twofold: most urgently, to return to my classrooms and continue the important work of critically examining the world and our relationship to it with my smart, thoughtful, and curious students. Secondly, I wanted to disabuse UNC’s leaders of the notion that they can infringe on our constitutional right to speak and assemble as we choose.”
“I am overjoyed to be reinstated so that I may return to the beloved campus from which I had been banned for resolutely advocating anti-racism and anti-fascism,” he added. “I will continue to speak and act for the freedom of all people, everywhere.”
Dixon is listed on the Asia and Middle Studies department’s website as teaching three courses this fall semester: two sections of ASIA 150 (Asia: An Introduction) and JAPN 482 (Embodying Japan: The Cultures of Beauty, Sports, and Medicine in Japan).
The full statement from UNC on Dixon’s reinstatement reads:
“The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has performed a thorough threat assessment of Teaching Associate Professor Dwayne Dixon based on recent reports and expressions of concern that he is an advocate for political violence. The Carolina Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Team consulted with the UNC System security office and with local law enforcement, undertaking a robust, swift and efficient review of all the evidence. We have found no basis to conclude that he poses a threat to University students, staff, and faculty, or has engaged in conduct that violates University policy.
“As a result, the University is reinstating Professor Dixon to his faculty responsibilities, effective immediately.
“The University continues to reaffirm its commitment to rigorous debate, respectful engagement, and open dialogue in support of free speech, while fulfilling our responsibility to protect the physical safety of the Carolina community.”
Featured image by Brighton McConnell/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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