Pro-Palestinian professor sues MIT over free speech rights

• Michel DeGraff, 63, is a Haitian-born linguist who has taught at MIT since 1996. He became a prominent faculty supporter of pro-Palestinian protesters after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
• A faculty panel rejected his proposed course tying decolonization, Haiti and Palestine together. He protested loudly, and MIT later sanctioned him for disruptive conduct and procedural violations.
• A federal judge dismissed a harassment complaint against DeGraff in its entirety in January 2026. His own suit against MIT and a House committee is pending. MIT has moved to dismiss part of it and denies wrongdoing.

 A tenured Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who has supported pro-Palestinian campus protesters is suing the university and a congressional committee, alleging they retaliated against him for his speech, as the university continues to employ him while limiting his role.

Michel DeGraff, a linguistics professor, sued MIT, the US House Committee on Education & Workforce and its chair, Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican, alleging violations of his First Amendment and civil rights. He is asking the court to order the committee to stop targeting him in reports and seeking records about him, and to award him monetary relief. Separately, he is suing MIT on claims of discrimination and breach of contract.

MIT has denied the allegations. The university has said only that it will respond to the lawsuit in court. Walberg’s office said the committee has the constitutional authority and duty to oversee institutions that receive federal funds and that it looks forward to defending that authority in court.

Rejected course, removal from department

At the center of the dispute is a proposed seminar on language and liberation struggles. DeGraff, a Haitian-born specialist in Creole languages who has taught at MIT since 1996, proposed a course titled “Language and Linguistics for Decolonization and Liberation and for Peace and Community Building-From the River to the Sea in Palestine and Israel to the Mountaintops of Haiti and Beyond,” according to a New York Times report.

After an ad hoc committee review, the department did not allow him to teach the course. Danny Fox, head of the linguistics section, said in an email that the decision was driven by questions about the course’s fit with the curriculum and challenges around disciplinary expertise on topics relevant to the Middle East conflict. Fox has declined to comment, citing MIT policy. 

DeGraff challenged the decision in a series of emails, some sent to wide groups of faculty and students, and in public posts. MIT later labeled the messages and posts misconduct. In late 2024, Agustín Rayo, dean of MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, sanctioned him for disruptive behavior and procedural violations and temporarily removed him from the linguistics section. Rayo wrote that DeGraff’s speech rights do not place him above MIT’s rules. 

DeGraff has since been designated “faculty at large.” He says he was denied a scheduled pay raise and access to new mentees, and that this autumn is the third in a row in which he is paid without a class assignment. He alleges his salary was frozen after his removal. He is scheduled to teach two courses in the spring, and says MIT also rejected a later course proposal. 

Harassment suit and committee report

DeGraff was also a defendant in a separate federal suit. In June 2025, former doctoral student William Sussman, MIT instructor Lior Alon and others sued MIT and DeGraff, alleging a hostile antisemitic climate on campus and that DeGraff harassed Sussman and Alon. The complaint cited DeGraff’s description of Zionism as a “mind infection.” DeGraff has said the phrase originated with an ‘Israeli’ scholar who used it to describe how ‘Israeli’ textbooks portray Palestinians. He denies being antisemitic. 

DeGraff’s case comes amid a broader set of disputes between US universities and faculty over pro-Palestinian speech. 

Inside Higher Ed reported in July that faculty were increasingly suing and sometimes winning. An arbitrator ordered San José State University to reinstate Sang Hea Kil, a professor fired in 2025 over her pro-Palestinian activism. A lawyer who represents such professors told the outlet the current wave of censorship is the worst since the McCarthy era, a characterization the outlet attributed to her. 

Read more: Iran delegation walks out during ‘Israeli’ president speech at Baku summit