Najja K. Baptist, associate professor of political science and director of African and African American studies at the University of Arkansas, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the university following an administrator’s recommendation to terminate him, according to a report from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
In March, Brian Raines, dean of the university’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, recommended Dr. Baptist be removed from his professorial role following the results of an internal audit of the professor’s research and fieldwork activities. According to the audit, Dr. Baptist took 15 trips totaling $48,344.26 that “appeared questionable as business related through interviews, observations, examination of source documents and email, as well as publicly available media sources, and discussions with university management.”
Dr. Baptist claims his fieldwork trips, which included visits to Black churches and community organizations, were legitimate. Dr. Baptist says one research event was classified by the auditors as a personal event, partially because music was playing at the event and people were dancing. Another research trip to a historic plantation site was also documented as a personal trip by the university’s auditors.
Prior to the audit, Dr. Baptist also claims that Dean Raines made a “racially charged comment” during a Zoom meeting that implied Black faculty and administrators “did not know how to handle stress.” However, the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX concluded that Dr. Baptist’s claims of discrimination were false, and no further action toward Dean Raines was necessary.
Dr. Baptist first joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 2019. His scholarship centers on Black politics, social movements, culture, political behavior, public opinion, and mass media in the United States. He holds three degrees in political science from three historically Black universities: a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Central University, a master’s degree from Jackson State University in Mississippi, and a Ph.D. from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
