Hannah Berliner Fischthal Wiki
Hannah Berliner Fischthal Biography
Who is Hannah Berliner Fischthal?
At St. John’s University, the professor lost her job, allegedly after students became upset after she quoted the N word out loud while reading a Mark Twain novel to her class.
However, the school denied that her date was the reason they fired her from her job.
Hannah Berliner Fischthal, an adjunct teacher at the school for two decades, was fired from her post on April 29.
She allegedly lost her job after an incident two months earlier during a remote class with her students on February 10.
In Fischthal’s ‘Literature of Satire’ class, she was reading an excerpt from Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain’s 1894 anti-slavery novel.
She read from a novel named Pudd’nhead Wilson, a Mark Twain novel seen as a send-up of racism and slavery, written in a satirical tone
Twain uses the N word in the novel, which Fischthal contextualized to his class before saying it, according to the New York Post.
“His use of the ‘N word’ is used only in the dialogues, as it could actually have been spoken in the south before the civil war, when the story takes place,” Fischthal said.
Despite his attempts to contextualize the quote before reading it, at least one female student claimed to leave class after uttering the word.
The student wrote in an email at the time: “It was unnecessary and very painful to hear.”
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Fischthal responded by apologizing and beginning a private conversation with his students, where he wrote: “I apologize if I made someone in the class feel uncomfortable by using an insult when quoting and discussing the text.”
Two students defended Fischthal while four rejected his use of the floor in class, a discussion that continued during the next class.
However, she was summoned to a human resources meeting on March 3 to discuss the incident and the response, as well as an alleged comment Fischthal made about a black student’s hair, which, according to the teacher, had nothing to do with it. with her hair.
Two days later, Fischthal was suspended, charged with violating the school’s bias policy.
Attorneys for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education have written to the president of the university to reinstate Fischthal.
“ Citing [Mark Twain’s] work in a class on satire falls squarely within the protection afforded by academic freedom, which gives faculty members breathing space to determine whether, and how, to discuss material that students may find it offensive, ” the letter reads.
Mark Twain novel, that is incorrect,’ Brian Browne, a spokesman for St. John’s
However, a school spokesperson rejected the claim that Fischthal was fired for the appointment.
“If his claim is that he was fired for reading aloud a Mark Twain novel, that’s wrong,” St. John’s spokesman Brian Browne told the Post.
Pudd’nhead Wilson is about a fair-skinned slave who trades her baby with her master’s baby to give her son a life of privilege that she would not otherwise receive.
The book is primarily about the debate between nature and nurture, as well as a satirical look at racism and slavery.
‘The point of this novel was that there is no inherent difference between blacks and whites. Clothes and education are what distinguish people, ”Fischthal said.
“The two children in the story look exactly the same, although one is a slave by law and the other is a privileged white child,” he added.
Incident Detail
Fischthal also referenced another recent incident at St. John’s that allegedly resulted in the firing of a teacher.
Former police officer Richard Taylor, 46, was an adjunct history professor at the university, where he taught a class on the Columbian exchange, which included the movement of plants, animals, technology, disease, and more between the Old World, Africa. Western and American in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Towards the end of class on the Columbian Exchange in September, Taylor allegedly asked students to justify slavery, prompting at least one complaint against him.
Taylor disagreed with the characterization that his message at the end of class was racist.
“I was asking them about the general pros and cons of uniting the Old World and the New World,” Taylor told the NY Post. “Slavery was a small part of the general discussion.”
After the complaint, he was removed from the classroom and later fired from his $ 15,000 adjunct professor position, which he has held since 2015.
St. John’s that allegedly resulted in the dismissal of a professor has that professor suing the school
Taylor and his attorneys say they have not been presented with evidence to justify his firing, nor have they been able to appeal the firing.
He is suing the school, claiming that he was fired for an unfair complaint against him.
Fischthal said she was “horrified” by that incident. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, she also believes that she is the last person who should be accused of being a racist.
“I know where she leads and I know where she ends up,” Fischthal said. “In each class I teach the evils of stereotypes.”
Fischthal concluded that she will miss her students and will miss the teaching.
Hannah Berliner Fischthal Quicks and Facts
- Hannah Berliner Fischthal was an adjunct professor at St. John’s University
- She was fired two and a half months after an incident during a remote class where she read an excerpt from Pudd’nhead Wilson on February 10
- The satirical Mark Twain book is seen as a send-up of slavery and racism
- Despite her attempts to contextualize the quote before reading it, at least one student claimed to leave the class after she said the N-word
- Fischthal then led a discussion about it before being suspended on March 5
- A spokesman for the school pushed back against the assertion that Fischthal was fired because of the quote
