Joshua Katz (classicist)

Joshua Timothy Katz (born September 12, 1969) is an American linguist and classicist who was the Cotsen Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University until May 2022.[1] He is a scholar on the languages, literatures, and cultures of ancient and medieval history. Currently, he is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.[2]

Joshua Katz
Born
Joshua Timothy Katz

(1969-09-12) September 12, 1969
New York, U.S.
OccupationFormer Professor at Princeton University
Spouse
Solveig Lucia Gold
​
(m. 2021)​
ParentThomas J. Katz (father)
AwardsMarshall Scholarship (1991)
Guggenheim Fellowship (2010)
Visiting Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford (2010)
Academic background
EducationYale University (BA)
University of Oxford (MPhil)
Harvard University (PhD)
ThesisTopics in Indo-European Personal Pronouns (1998)
Doctoral advisorCalvert Watkins
Academic work
DisciplineHistorical linguistics, Comparative linguistics, Classics
InstitutionsPrinceton University (1998–2022)
Institute for Advanced Study (2002–2003)
École pratique des Hautes Études (2011)
University of Berlin (2015)

In 2020, Katz wrote an essay in Quillette which included criticisms of a former black student activist group at Princeton, leading to a backlash on the Princeton campus and the rescinding of a conference invitation by the American Council of Learned Societies.[3] Katz's contentions that his views were being suppressed attracted support from conservatives and some academic freedom advocates.[4][5]

In 2021, The Daily Princetonian reported that Katz had been suspended in 2018 for engaging in a consensual sexual relationship with a student in violation of university policy.[6] In May 2022, he was fired after a second investigation concluded that he had lied during the 2018 sexual misconduct investigation.[5]

Early life and education

Katz was born in New York in 1969, the son of chemist Thomas J. Katz.[7] He attended the Dalton School in New York City before attending Yale University for his bachelor's degree in linguistics, graduating summa cum laude. After graduating from Yale, Katz attended the University of Oxford on a Marshall Scholarship and earned a master's degree in general linguistics and comparative philology in 1993. He completed a Ph.D. in linguistics at Harvard University in 1998.[6]

Academic career

Katz joined the faculty of Princeton University as a classics lecturer in 1998 and, by 2006, had received tenure as an associate professor. From September 2002 to August 2003, Katz was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study.[8] In 2008, he became full-time professor at Princeton. He has since held visiting professorships at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Université Paris Diderot, and the University of Berlin.[1]

Katz became a popular undergraduate teacher at Princeton and was awarded the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2003, the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award in 2008, and the Sophie and L. Edward Cotsen Faculty Fellowship.[9] He was praised by the university for “the care he takes with students in and out of the classroom” and was recognized as one of four faculty members for outstanding teaching in 2003,[10] with a class of his making The Daily Beast's list of "hottest college courses" in 2011.[11] Katz was president of Princeton's Phi Beta Kappa society for two terms, department representative for the classics from 2003 to 2005, a member of the Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline,[12] and director of the Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows, which he founded in 2009.[13]

Katz chaired the selection committee of the Barry Scholarship at the University of Oxford.[14] As of 2023, the chair is Christian Sahner.[15] When plans for the University of Austin were announced in 2021, he joined its board of advisors.[16][17] He is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.[2]

Political controversy and sexual misconduct investigations

Katz was investigated by Princeton twice,[18][19][4] stemming from a relationship he had with a student around 2005. Before the second investigation, he wrote a controversial opinion piece about race on campus, near the peak of the 2020 George Floyd protests.[20][21][5] The second investigation over his student relationship, which led to his termination, created its own controversy over possible free speech suppression, since it came on the heels of Katz's previous controversy.[20][21][5]

First investigation

A Princeton University investigation in 2018 found that during the mid-2000s, Katz had engaged in a multi-year consensual relationship with a female undergraduate student in the classics department in violation of university policy on faculty-student relationships.[19][22] The investigation resulted in Katz taking a year of unpaid leave as a suspension.[6][4] It was not made public until 2021.[6][20][19]

Political essays and backlash

Throughout 2020–2021, Katz wrote essays in The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, Quillette, and National Review, among others, criticizing political correctness.[23][24] His July 2020 essay in the online magazine Quillette, which opposed faculty recommendations to address racist aspects of Princeton's history, also criticized a former Princeton student group, the Black Justice League, describing it as "a small local terrorist organization that made life miserable for many (including the many black students) who did not agree with its members’ demands".[5][20] Katz received backlash from colleagues, including the Princeton Department of Classics chair Michael Flower,[25] but was praised by the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal and columnist Rod Dreher for speaking out against cancel culture once the story reached national attention.[26][27] A university spokesperson initially said it would look into the controversy, but it opted not to investigate.[20] In July 2020, Katz wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal titled "I Survived Cancellation at Princeton."[20][28] After the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) revoked his invitation to be a volunteer delegate to the Union Académique Internationale conference in Paris, Katz sued the ACLS in 2021 for viewpoint discrimination. A judge dismissed the lawsuit.[29][3]

Second investigation and firing

In February 2021, The Daily Princetonian reported the university's 2018 misconduct investigation that had led to Katz's suspension.[6][20] Katz acknowledged breaking the university's rules.[19][30] Princeton began a second investigation, which concluded in November 2021 that Katz had "misrepresented facts" in the 2018 inquiry and had discouraged the former student in the relationship from cooperating with it.[18][4] Supporters of Katz, including the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, criticized the university, alleging the investigation sought to suppress Katz's free speech rights.[31][32][33]

Princeton University president Christopher L. Eisgruber called for Katz's removal from the university on May 10, 2022, based on the new evidence from the second investigation.[18] Katz was dismissed from the faculty, entirely, after a vote by the university's board of trustees on May 23, 2022.[4][5] The Wall Street Journal published an opinion article by Katz soon after, in which he alleged that the university had fired him for political reasons and had misrepresented his positions to provoke dissent.[34]

Personal life

In July 2021, Katz married Solveig Gold, a doctoral candidate in classics at University of Cambridge, who graduated from Princeton in 2017 and is one of his former undergraduate students.[20]

References
  1. "Joshua Katz". Princeton Classics. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  2. "Joshua T. Katz". American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  3. "Classics professor's lawsuit against academic society dismissed by New Jersey court". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  4. "Princeton dismisses professor Joshua Katz 'effective immediately' after U. investigation finds policy violations". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  5. Belkin, Melissa Korn and Douglas (2022-05-23). "Princeton Board Fires Tenured Professor Joshua Katz, Backing President's Recommendation". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  6. "Alumni allege history of inappropriate conduct with female students by Princeton professor Joshua Katz". The Princetonian. February 4, 2021. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  7. "Joshua T. Katz". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  8. "Joshua Katz - Scholars | Institute for Advanced Study". www.ias.edu. 2019-12-09. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  9. "Katz embraces dynamic approach to convey richness of languages". Princeton University. Retrieved 2022-05-26.
  10. "Four faculty members recognized for outstanding teaching". pr.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  11. "Class on modern baseball a hit; makes 'hottest college course' list". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  12. "Daily Princetonian 20 November 2006 — Princeton Periodicals". theprince.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  13. "Daily Princetonian 2 March 2009 — Princeton Periodicals". theprince.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  14. "A Better Kind of Postgraduate Academic Prize". National Review. 2020-07-07. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  15. "Barry Scholarship". Barry Scholarship. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  16. "Pursue truth or fight cancel culture? The University of Austin must choose". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  17. "Board of Advisors". UATX. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  18. "Princeton president asks board to fire tenured professor after sexual misconduct probe, lawyer says". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  19. "Katz releases statement on misconduct allegations, acknowledging relationship with undergraduate student and past discipline". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2022-05-26.
  20. Hartocollis, Anemona (2022-05-20). "After Campus Uproar, Princeton Proposes to Fire Tenured Professor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  21. "Princeton Preparing to Fire Tenured Professor for Opposing Far-Left Activists". National Review. 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  22. "Princeton University: Office of the Dean of the Faculty". 2005-03-17. Archived from the original on 17 March 2005. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  23. "Editorial Archive | Princetonians for Free Speech". princetoniansforfreespeech.com. Retrieved 2022-05-26.
  24. "Joshua Katz, Cancel Culture and its Discontents Transcript". Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization. 2021-07-28. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  25. "Classics chair calls professor's language on BJL 'absolutely abhorrent,' as Katz defends 'blunt speech'". The Princetonian. July 14, 2020. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  26. The Editorial Board (2020-07-14). "Opinion | The Speech Police at Princeton". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  27. "Katz Showdown At Princeton". The American Conservative. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  28. "Katz defends 'blunt words' in op-ed, as Department of Classics removes condemnation from website". The Princetonian. July 27, 2020. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  29. "Joshua Katz sues academic society, alleges 'viewpoint discrimination'". The Princetonian. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  30. Heyboer, Kelly (2021-05-12). "Rewrite Princeton's sexual misconduct rules, students say". nj.com. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  31. "Free Speech for Me, and Thee?". inside Higher Ed. Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, for instance, wrote to Princeton to say that the university had put itself "in the position of violating its own rules by severely harassing a member of the academic community whose speech the president declared to be protected."
  32. "How Princeton Eviscerated Its Free Speech Rule and Covered It Up". American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  33. The Editorial Board (2022-05-20). "Opinion | Princeton Targets a Dissenting Professor". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  34. Katz, Joshua (2022-05-24). "Opinion | Princeton Fed Me to the Cancel Culture Mob". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
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