State: Illinois
City: Evanston/Chicago
Campus: Northwestern University (Northwestern)
Daisy Hernandez is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the English Major in Writing at Northwestern University. She’s also a journalist and author whose work focuses on race, immigration, class, and sexuality. But when it comes to her public activity, Hernandez seems just as interested in activism as academics. From pro-Palestinian protests to faculty statements defending controversial student activists, she has made it pretty clear where she stands. The only mystery is whether there’s any room left for disagreement.
Hernandez hasn’t exactly kept her political views tucked away in the faculty lounge. She has publicly joined pro-Palestinian activism and backed efforts to defend activists accused of antisemitism, placing her squarely in the growing camp of professors who treat political advocacy like an extracurricular activity with tenure benefits.
If Hernandez’s activism tells you where her politics are, her reading recommendations don’t exactly keep you guessing. She has repeatedly highlighted work centered on Gaza and Palestinian identity, bringing the same themes that appear in her activism into her academic interests. Daisy Hernandez praised Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies by Heba Hayek as “Tender yet brutal vignettes on a girlhood in Gaza, Palestine, filled with honey and warmth.”
On her social media, she regularly shares and reposts content that ignores Israeli perspectives:
Daisy Hernandez holds a leadership position at Northwestern, which means she has influence over students, curriculum, and the direction of a major academic program. That’s what makes her activism worth paying attention to. Nobody expects professors to be robots, but students should be able to expect something resembling intellectual balance.
Hernandez’s record doesn’t show a professor trying to explore a debate from every angle. It shows someone who has picked a side and keeps finding new ways to promote it. At a university already struggling with tensions over antisemitism and campus activism, that’s not exactly reassuring.
