Pro-Palestinian professor sues Pitt for retaliation and discrimination

A professor in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education is suing the university and Dean Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher, claiming he was removed from leadership positions as retaliation for his support of Palestinians, and because of his sex and sexual orientation.

T. Elon Dancy II is a tenured professor at the university’s Center for Urban Education — which is within Pitt’s School of Education — who focuses on Black intellectual thought; boys, men and masculinities; and structural oppression, according to his Pitt bio.

Dancy asserts in his complaint that he was promoted in 2020 to serve as associate dean for Equity and Justice in the School of Education and executive director of the CUE. He also held the position of Helen S. Faison endowed chair.

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According to his complaint, filed in federal court, Dancy “identifies as a Black, gay man, who is married to a man of Islamic faith.”

In January, 2024 — three months after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, murdering 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage — a group of students, prospective students and university affiliates signed a letter to Zamani-Gallaher as part of the “University of Pittsburgh School of Education Palestinian Solidarity Collective” (‘the Collective’),” according to Dancy’s complaint. The letter demanded that the university’s School of Education increase educational efforts and programming regarding the Hamas/Israel war. The letter also stated that programming facilitated by Dancy, titled “Gaza for Educators and Organizers,” was the “only action of this type” in the School of Education.

Zamani-Gallaher responded to the letter three days later, according to the complaint. Unsatisfied with her response, the Collective accused her of being “asleep at the wheel when called in to intervene on Zionist [] violence with the indigenous people of Palestine,” and called for her immediate resignation as interim dean.

In a letter co-authored by Dancy to senior Pitt administrators, he wrote: “We read the letters as students holding us accountable to the university’s role in global liberation against antiblackness (and its genocidal expressions) through curriculum, pedagogy, and institutional organization,” according to the complaint.

Dancy further alleges the Zamani-Gallaher attempted to dissuade a graduate student from working under his direction.

Dancy then filed a complaint in the university’s Title IX office.

In May 2024, Zamani-Gallaher initiated an external review of the CUE, and, Dancy alleges, included a “former dean who had expressed disdain for CUE’s programming, indicating that he would withdraw philanthropic support and disagreeing with Dr. Dancy’s use of the term ‘genocide’ to describe circumstances in Gaza.”

Dancy objected to the inclusion of that former dean, and also to the external review’s conclusions. While in the midst of scheduling a time to discuss the review with Zamani-Gallaher, he alleges, she “removed him from his position as CUE Director and Helen S. Faison Endowed Chair.” Dancy then filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

He alleges he was replaced by two “less qualified” females.

Dancy claims he was removed from his position because of his “his political affiliation and/or beliefs” and in violation of his constitutional rights. He further claims he was removed from his positions because of his sex and sexual orientation, and in retaliation for filing a complaint with the EEOC.

The university declined to comment on the case. PJC

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that T. Elon Dancy II signed the letter to Dean Eboni M. Zamani-Gallaher as part of the “University of Pittsburgh School of Education Palestinian Solidarity Collective.” Dancy did not sign that letter. The Chronicle regrets the error.