SAIC art therapy professor placed on leave after Palestine reference in class case study
A tenured professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is under investigation after a student complaint over a graduate therapy assignment that mentioned Palestine, turning a classroom exercise into the latest test of academic freedom on a U.S. campus. Savneet Talwar, who teaches art therapy at SAIC, was reportedly suspended from teaching and placed on paid leave on April 17.
The disputed material appeared in Talwar’s graduate course, “Cultural Dimensions of Therapy.” According to Talwar, the assignment asked students to design an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer Muslim woman living in the United States. The case study described a fictional client who was moved by protests in support of Palestine and distressed by violence against Palestinian civilians. Talwar said the two-page exercise focused on the woman’s relationships and immigrant experience, with no further reference to Israel or Palestine.
Talwar said she was then called into an “urgent” meeting with senior administrators and asked whether she had assigned “anything with Palestine in it.” The next day, she received a letter saying the school was placing her on paid leave and instructing her not to discuss the matter with students or colleagues. The letter warned that the assignment could amount to “discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation.”
The school also pointed to a broader pattern of complaints involving the student, who had identified herself as a Jewish Israeli in prior investigations. SAIC declined to discuss the open case, but said it remains committed to “learning environments in which ideas are freely exchanged and students and faculty are welcomed, respected, and valued.”
Talwar has rejected the allegation that the assignment was antisemitic or discriminatory. Her attorney, Rima Kapitan, said the suspension itself amounted to discrimination and accused administrators of failing to articulate a coherent theory of harm. The dispute arrives against a wider backdrop of campus conflict over Palestine, antisemitism claims, and speech protections, including a 2023 lawsuit against SAIC over an assignment involving Palestinian children’s drawings that was later dismissed.
For art schools, where questions of ethics, representation, and social context often shape the curriculum, the case underscores how quickly a classroom prompt can become a legal and political flashpoint.
