Florida college left without American history professor after axing DeSantis critic

Erik Wallenberg, a visiting professor at the New College of Florida and a detractor of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' efforts to take over the state's higher educational system, was unceremoniously removed, leaving the campus without a professor who teaches U.S. history, the Miami New Timesreported this week.

"Though he'd been an outspoken critic of New College's recent anti-'woke' overhaul, the axing of his teaching position made little sense to Wallenberg from an academic standpoint," reported Naomi Feinstein. "'The social sciences department had been supportive of his planned return for another year, he had received positive student evaluations, and he had just published an American history research paper."

In an interview with the Miami New Times, Wallenberg elaborated on why he was surprised by his dismissal.

"They have no U.S. historians in the department, and they need someone to teach U.S. history," he told the publication. "They asked if I would come back, and I said I would definitely be interested, so they said, 'Great, we'll send over the offer letter to the provost's office,' and then the head of the social sciences division told me that it was being held up by interim president Richard Corcoran.'"

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Wallenberg's status remained in limbo for six weeks before he was told that Corcoran, a DeSantis appointee, would not sign off on his offer letter.

The New College of Florida, located in Sarasota, has been ground zero of DeSantis' experiment to exert right-wing control over higher education. He has appointed a number of far-right activists to oversee the school, including Chris Rufo, a filmmaker who architected the GOP moral panic against "Critical Race Theory." The Florida legislature actually rejected one of DeSantis' chosen trustees, Eddie Speir, due to his stated goal of wanting to use the position to proselytize about Jesus to students.

Wallenberg's own personal criticism of DeSantis may not be the only factor in his dismissal, the report noted.

"On April 20, Wallenberg had Black historian and outspoken DeSantis critic Marvin Dunn speak to his class for a lecture about Black history in the state and threats to educational freedom. Wallenberg says the social sciences division head supported Dunn coming to campus," the report noted. However, "Dunn's presence on campus was bound to ruffle feathers among DeSantis' newly installed college higher-ups. The professor emeritus at Florida International University was one of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in August 2022 to block DeSantis' so-called Stop WOKE Act, which restricts the teaching of systemic racism in public schools. And he has not held back in his opposition to the governor's education agenda. (He recently told New Times, 'We will not allow DeSantis to kill our history. We just won't allow it.')"

All of this comes at a time when Florida's K-12 school system is also in crisis over DeSantis-backed laws prohibiting any expression of queerness and book censorship that pushed one school to strip its library shelves bare. It also comes as DeSantis mounts a campaign for president, trying to sell the country on the agenda he has pushed in Florida.