Melissa Click, the former University of Missouri communications professor who infamously called for some “muscle” to expel journalists from campus race protests last year, has been given a one-year position as a lecturer at Gonzaga University.
The Jesuit university said in a statement Ms. Click was “hired through an extensive national search process that revealed her to be the most qualified and experienced candidate for the position.”
“Dr. Click has excellent recommendations for both her teaching and scholarship, which includes an extensive record of publication,” Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement. “We are confident she has learned much from her experiences at the University of Missouri and believe she will uphold the rigorous standards of academic excellence demanded of Gonzaga faculty and students.”
Ms. Click was fired from the University of Missouri after she was caught on camera calling for “muscle” to remove a student journalist from a protest site at the height of the Black Lives Matter campus demonstrations in the fall.
The disgraced scholar apologized for her actions, but later said she was made into a “scapegoat” by the university to appease conservatives.
“This is about racial politics,” Ms. Click said in an interview with the Chronicle of Higher Education. “I’m a white lady. I’m an easy target,” adding that “black people love me.”
Ms. Click’s scholarship has focused extensively on gender and class in popular culture.
Her curriculum vitae lists articles such as “Fifty Shades of postfeminism: Contextualizing readers’ reflections on the erotic romance series,” “The trouble with Thomas [The Tank Engine]: A closer look at the popular children’s Series” and “Twitards and Tyler’s Van: Anti-fans, Twilight, and textuality.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.