$725K Settlement in University of North Texas Academic Freedom Case
Here’s a summary of the underlying legal issue, as reported in Jackson v. Wright, decided in 2022 by Judge Amos Mazzant (E.D. Tex.):
This case stems from the suppression of academic scholarship at the University of North Texas …. Plaintiff Dr. Timothy Jackson is a professor and scholar of music theory at UNT. He has dedicated much of his 40-year career to studying Heinrich Schenker …, an Austrian Jew who developed a system of music theory that became influential in the United States after World War II. Prior to this lawsuit, UNT was home to, and Plaintiff directed, the Center for Schenkerian Studies. Plaintiff was also a founding member of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies …, which was formerly published by the UNT Press.
Plaintiff’s area of expertise became a topic of controversy in November 2019 at a convention of the Society for Music Theory. Philip Ewell, a Black professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, delivered for the Society a plenary address titled “Music Theory’s White Racial Frame.” During this talk, Professor Ewell critiqued the discipline of music theory for its “deep-seated whiteness” and described Schenker as “an ardent racist and German nationalist.” In a paper later published on this talk, Professor Ewell argued that “Schenkerian theory is an institutionalized racial structure … that exists to benefit members of the dominant white race of music theory.”
As a lead editor of the Journal (of which Schenker is the namesake), Plaintiff … organized a symposium and invited music scholars to submit papers in response to Professor Ewell’s talk and publication….
The symposium contributions reflected a range of views on Professor Ewell’s arguments and were published in the Journal in July 2020. Plaintiff contributed one of the pieces, which accuses Professor Ewell of q
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