Karen Leader, an associate professor of art history at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), was placed on administrative leave due to comments made about Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist shot dead in Utah last week.
On Saturday, FAU President Adam Hasner released a statement announcing that an unnamed faculty member had “been placed on administrative leave pending investigation” due to “repeated comments made on social media … regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” Conservative activists on X identified Leader as the faculty member in question shortly after, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Sunday.
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Leader’s X account is private, but according to the Sentinel, the social media posts in question shared “critical comments by others that called attention to what the commentators said were Kirk’s racist, anti-gay and anti-woman statements.” They were not posts in Leader’s own words, nor did they specifically reference Kirk’s murder.
In an interview with Artnet News, Leader said that “many other people are having their reputations challenged because the Right doesn’t like what we say and they want to erase it from the historical record. They want Kirk to be some kind of saint and to be non-controversial and to make the Left look hysterical.”
Two other FAU professors—finance professor Rebel Cole and English professor Kate Polak—were also placed on leave, according to CBS12 News.
In his statement, Hasner said that the professors were placed on leave “due to specific processes regarding tenured faculty members.”
“Our focus remains on our academic community’s responsibility to promote civil discourse, conduct healthy debate, and treat one another with respect,” he said. “This applies to all students, faculty, and staff no matter their political leanings.”