Carnegie Mellon University says professor Uju Anya is on voluntary professional leave while it reviews social media posts it described as “hostile and threatening,” following renewed scrutiny of past and recent comments attributed to her.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.

Carnegie Mellon University is reviewing social media posts attributed to associate professor Uju Anya that the school has characterized as “hostile and threatening,” while confirming that she is on voluntary professional leave and will not teach on campus during the current academic year.

“Dr. Uju Anya is currently on voluntary professional leave from the university and is not teaching courses on our campus this academic year,” Carnegie Mellon said Friday in an X post.

The university followed with a second statement, saying, “We are deeply concerned by recent hostile and threatening social media posts by Dr. Anya and are reviewing this matter closely.”

Carnegie Mellon further distanced itself from the comments in a follow-up post.

“To be clear: These posts incorrectly imply our university’s endorsement and are contrary to our community standards and values as well as our commitment to fostering a safe, respectful and welcoming campus community,” the university said.

The review follows renewed attention to comments attributed to Anya, an associate professor of Second Language Acquisition, including screenshots of a 2021 exchange in which she purportedly told another X user, “Die first, white man.”

The screenshots circulated again online after being shared by an X user identified as @TheWuhanClan.

The exchange originated with a Feb. 17, 2021, post attributed to Anya following the death of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.

“Rush Limbaugh finally did something positive in life by dropping dead. Good Riddance to bad rubbish,” Anya wrote, according to the screenshots.

The other user responded, “Weird how you only celebrate the deaths of white people. Why is that?”

Anya purportedly answered, “Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I’m dancing.”

The resurfaced exchange is not the only social media activity drawing attention to the professor.

According to a TribLIVE report, Anya recently referred to the one-year anniversary of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination as “Kirkmas.”

TribLIVE also reported that Anya responded to the 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, by writing, “It was staged.”

Anya’s X account has since been deactivated or removed.

The university identifies Anya on its faculty website as “a scholar of language learning and Black experiences in multilingualism” whose work examines linguistic issues “with a focus on how race, gender, sexual and social class identities intersect.”

She is also the author of Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning: Speaking Blackness in Brazil.

The renewed controversy follows several previous episodes involving Anya’s public statements on social media.

In 2022, shortly before the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Anya described the monarch as a “wretched woman” and a “genocidal colonizer,” referring to her as “the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire.”

“May her pain be excruciating,” Anya wrote.

The remarks generated widespread criticism but also support from thousands of university professors who defended her comments. Supporters argued that Queen Elizabeth II had sat “on a throne of Indigenous and Black blood, embedded in the overall legacy of the British monarchy.”

The latest scrutiny has revived debate around Anya’s previous comments while placing Carnegie Mellon under pressure to explain how the university intends to address remarks it now publicly describes as inconsistent with its standards.

The university has not announced the outcome of its review or what, if any, disciplinary consequences could result.

Carnegie Mellon’s response has so far emphasized that Anya is not teaching this academic year and that the university does not endorse the statements attributed to her.

Additional social media posts highlighting Anya’s history of controversial remarks have continued circulating as the university conducts its review.

For Carnegie Mellon, the current issue centers not merely on disagreement with a faculty member’s political or social views but on posts the university itself has described as “hostile and threatening.”

Its official statement makes clear that administrators believe the material warrants further examination, while stopping short of announcing any formal finding against Anya.

The university has also framed its response around campus safety and institutional standards, saying the posts run contrary to its commitment to maintaining “a safe, respectful and welcoming campus community.”

Anya, meanwhile, remains away from the classroom on voluntary professional leave as the university determines what action, if any, will follow its review.

Original article