Freedom of speech on campuses is key to addressing racial inequality William Sturkey, The Washington Post Dec. 22, 2020 FacebookTwitterEmail On Dec. 10, Garrett Felber, an assistant professor of history at the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"), received an email notifying him without warning that his position would be terminated at the end of 2021. Felber is an award-winning scholar and an internationally recognized leader in the study of mass incarceration - one of the pressing questions of our time, considering that the United States incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate than any other nation. Although his department chair claims that his termination stems from a breakdown in communication, scholars and nonscholars alike were shocked that a professor on leave - as a research fellow at Harvard University - could be fired for a failure to communicate, especially in the middle of a global pandemic. Many observers familiar with Felber joined colleagues within his own department, pointing to his activist work in support of funding education for those incarcerated, and his earlier critiques of the university as the underlying reasons for his dismissal.