An accounting from Dr Ahlam Muhtaseb

at 5 pm.The event, hosted by the largest association for communication studies scholars in the US, was also intended to recognize me with a presidential citation for "Leadership in Creating a More Community-and Culturally-Centered Discipline."In September, Dr Walid Afifi, the elected president of NCA, asked several communication studies scholars to contribute parts of his presidential address, aiming to envision the future of the discipline in an innovative manner.He specifically selected scholars advocating for various social justice issues, with me focusing on Palestine in my contribution, and delivering the speech in Arabic.My understanding is that multiple individuals from the national office of NCA, including the executive director and the senior director of strategic communications, were involved in preventing me from delivering my portion of the President's Address at the NCA annual conference against the will of the president.This decision, which was conveyed to me and the other speakers just half an hour before we were supposed to go on stage, ultimately resulted in the cancelation of the entire Presidential Address of Dr Walid Afifi, the first Palestinian President in the association's history, which also silenced the voices of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, differently abled, trans, and queer NCA members who were supposed to deliver the address with me.Dr Afifi was told that the speeches naming colonial violences would cast the NCA in a negative light "from which NCA might never recover."When I pushed for more answers, I was told that my speech was singled out for removal because of my references to genocide and "free Palestine" in the speech.These concerns were raised with Dr Afifi only an hour before the start of the event, even though the speech was translated and shared with NCA five days earlier, without any prior objections.All speakers, including me, then refused to present their parts of the address.During the award presentation, when my name was called for the presidential citation, I briefly stood with duct tape over my mouth before leaving the stage.Dr Afifi mentioned that I rejected the award.Another speaker who was supposed to receive an award also decided to reject their award in solidarity with me.Immediately following the awards ceremony and before the Presidential Address, around a hundred scholars stood up, with some placing duct tape over their mouths in solidarity, and they all walked out of the ballroom.Upon the decision to censor my speech, we suggested protesting by going onto the stage in defiance of the cancelation decision, but we were cautioned that we might face removal by security hired by NCA.To defuse the situation, we opted to exit the ceremony and perform our speeches and spoken words outside.We started our speeches and performances as planned in the atrium of the hotel.Hotel security prevented us from using a megaphone in the hotel atrium.They instructed us to go back inside the ballroom, but once we gave up the

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• The communicative inversions of academic freedom

  Open Access•Mohan J Dutta•Journal of International and…•2026

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