{"id":4404,"date":"2010-05-10T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T16:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sexuality\/?p=4404"},"modified":"2010-11-19T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T20:08:09","slug":"marquette-rescinds-job-offer-to-sociologist-and-sexuality-scholar-jodi-obrien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sexuality\/2010\/05\/10\/marquette-rescinds-job-offer-to-sociologist-and-sexuality-scholar-jodi-obrien\/","title":{"rendered":"Marquette Rescinds job offer to Sociologist and Sexuality scholar, Jodi O\u2019Brien"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Professor Jodi O'Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month\u00a0Marquette University<\/a> –a Jesuit University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — offered esteemed Sociologist\u00a0Jodi O\u2019Brien the position of Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences<\/a>. After carefully weighing the vast professional and personal transitions that such a move would entail, O’Brien accepted the offer. She signed the contract and mailed it back to Marquette. She and her partner were preparing to put an offer on a house in Milwaukee.\u00a0But early last week, after pressure from unnamed sources, Marquette backtracked. The official reason? As Marquette President Father Wild told the New York Times,<\/a>\u201cWe found some strongly negative statements about marriage and famil<\/em>y.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This abrupt turn away from O’Brien — a job candidate actively pursued by search committees at Marquette for the past TWO years<\/strong> — has left O’Brien’s extensive and loyal network of colleagues, friends, and students vacilliating between complete disbelief and rage. Hundreds of her would-be Marquette colleagues and students are also shocked by this news and have organized several protests<\/a>. Two Facebook support groups have emerged, one originating from Marquette<\/a>, one from Seattle University<\/a>.\u00a0Marquette Professor of Theology Daniel C. Maguire has written a scathing open letter to Marquette President Robert Wild and Provost John Pauly<\/a>, calling for Wild’s resignation and for Wild’s successor to re-offer the job to O’Brien.<\/p>\n

I<\/strong>n this post we will simply list some of the facts of this case<\/strong>. We will provide an overview of O’Brien’s scholarship, as well as the legal and social implications of Marquette’s actions in a follow-up post.<\/p>\n