In December 2015, a small evangelical school in the western Chicago suburbs close to where I grew up called Wheaton College made international headlines when it summarily fired Professor Larycia Hawkins—a tenured African American professor of political science—because she pointed out that Christians and Muslims worshipped the same Abrahamic God, and proclaimed that she would wear a hijab in solidarity with Muslim women during the Christian season of Advent.

QUESTION: Why did a statement of interfaith solidarity trigger termination rather than dialogue? Worth probing the boundary lines of evangelical orthodoxy.

QUESTION: This incident raises questions about academic freedom at religious institutions and how far faith-based institutional loyalty extends. Worth investigating the aftermath and precedent. SEED: A piece on the tension between academic tenure and religious institutional authority, using this as a case study, could resonate with audiences interested in higher-ed politics.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 395