Professor Watchlist

Dr. Nicholas De Genova is a professor and the Chair of the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Houston. His university biography describes him as a scholar of migration, borders, citizenship, labor, critical race, postcolonial, and ethnic studies. Dr. De Genova is an ardent advocate for abolishing national borders and has called for the death of American soldiers.

In an interview for the Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, Dr. De Genova describes his work in postcolonial studies as taking the free movement of people across borders as a “natural element of the human condition.” At one point in the interview, Dr. De Genova implies that national borders should be abolished.

 

 

Continuing, Dr. De Genova states that national borders are the most violent divisions that humanity has constructed.

 

 

Throughout his work, Dr. De Genova claims that borders are used to elicit racial strife. In a piece written for the Journal of the American Anthropological Association, Dr. De Genova alleges there are parallels between Trump’s policies on the US-Mexico border and a “brutal and bellicose racial nativism” of conservative support for restrictive immigration policies. 

In the same paper, Dr. De Genova describes conservatives as fascists who are fomenting a racial civil war against people of color and illegal immigrants through the enforcement of immigration laws. He states:

“We must interrogate the synergies between, on the one hand, the variety of ways that Trump’s supporters are induced to endorse or emulate this brutal and bellicose racial nativism and, on the other hand, the outright cruelty and sadism, of the Trump administration’s border-enforcement tactics and the racist violence that they have institutionalized.” 

Dr. De Genova describes the United States as a nation that embodies white nationalism. Quoting author Wahneema Lubiano, Dr. De Genova states that American history has always “been some form” of white nationalism.

 

In an open letter published by The Columbia Spectator, Dr. De Genova described the United States as an emblem of white nationalism. Alleging the formation of the United States constituted racism and imperialism, Dr. De Genova called on Americans to “repudiate all forms of patriotism.”

The letter is a response to the public outcry to his teach-in at Columbia University, where Dr. De Genova called for “a million Mogadishus” to be inflicted against American troops in Iraq.

The professor is referring to the Black Hawk Down incident that occurred in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993,  where 18 American soldiers were killed and over 70 were wounded. Pictures later emerged of the bodies of the servicemen being dragged through the streets by Somalian militia groups. The demoralizing aftermath is considered to have contributed to the decision of then-President Bill Clinton to withdraw America’s humanitarian mission from the country.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. De Genova serves as the chair of the Special Committee on Race and Social Justice at the University of Houston. According to the university’s official website, the committee organizes events to educate students about topics such as the “racial formation of modern capitalism, mass incarceration, racism in academia, and the “racial underpinnings for contemporary immigration policy and border policing.” according to the University’s official site.

The Professor Watchlist Team has reached Dr. De Genova for comment but has not received a reply by the time of publication.

 

Parents and Students may contact the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston at (713)-743-4002.

Updated – July 2021