CounterCurrent: Week of 07/21/2025
The insidious force that is cancel culture has not prevailed in a five-year ongoing legal battle between a University of North Texas (UNT) professor and the university.
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) tracks instances of cancel culture in higher education and even lends a helping hand through open letters and more to those on the receiving end of cancellation. Timothy Jackson, a music theory professor at UNT, is one such individual.
Jackson, whose story NAS covered in 2020 and again in 2022, has just received a settlement from UNT after a years-long legal battle—one that began when he defended music theorist Heinrich Schenker against accusations of “systemic racism," and escalated into violations of his academic freedom and threats to his tenured position.
For more context, Jackson’s area of expertise centers around Schenker, an Austrian Jew who developed an influential system of music theory that became popular in the United States after World War II. Jackson was also a lead editor of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies, published by the Center for Schenkerian Studies at the UNT College of Music. The crux of the issue came to be when Philip Ewell, a black professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, delivered an address at the Society for Music Theory in 2019 titled “Music Theory's White Racial Frame,” in which he critiqued the discipline of music theory for its "deep-seated whiteness" and described Schenker as "an ardent racist and German nationalist." Ewell even argued that "Schenkerian theory is an institutionalized racial structure … that exists to benefit members of the dominant white race of music theory."
After this event, Professor Jackson organized a symposium for the Journal of Schenkerian Studies in 2020, inviting fellow scholars—including Ewell and members of the Society of Music Theory—to interact with Ewell’s Society of Music Theory address and later publication on the subject. Many contributed their differing views on Ewell’s argument, including Jackson. For the symposium, Jackson,
contributed one of the pieces, which accuses Professor Ewell of quoting Schenker without context, failing to discuss the evolution of Schenker's views on race during his lifetime, and refusing to acknowledge that Schenker was a victim of anti-Semitism.
In the aftermath of Jackson’s publication in the Journal, retaliation was swift. Who knew engaging with fellow academics and their ideas in an academic symposium is problematic?
A large number of graduate students and faculty began a social media campaign and circulated petitions against Jackson, demanding he be sanctioned by UNT and that he lose his tenured position. This crusade against Jackson included music theorists across the nation, and faculty and graduate students at the university itself.
Sadly, UNT endorsed Jackson’s persecution. For instance, “an academic committee stated that Jackson had failed to act according to best professional practices in his editorial role at the Journal of Schenkerian Studies,” and because of this “they required him to cease his affiliation with the Journal, knowing that the Journal would likely collapse as a result.” The resulting 2022 court case brought forth by Jackson against UNT was in an effort to seek redress for the harm done to him. Thankfully, the Judge rejected UNT’s request to dismiss the case.
Now, as of July 2025, Jackson will receive a $725,000 settlement from the university, and continue on as professor, as well as resuming his role as editor of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies for the next five years. However, part of the settlement required Jackson to “drop his First Amendment claim against the university and defamation claims against faculty members and a student." And, according to the settlement, "UNT is not admitting guilt.”
Jackson’s case is emblematic of the patterns that define cancel culture. Colleges and universities will boldly proclaim their allegiance to “academic freedom” but when an administrator, professor, or student diverts from campus culturally accepted ideological norms, that individual receives the full wrath of cancellation. Freedom to engage in academic debate is critical to hone and sharpen even the best of the best. But apparently, you cannot divert from ideologically accepted norms on many of today’s campuses without repercussions.
After the settlement, a KERA News article reported that,
Jackson said the settlement is a win, but a loss, too. He said universities are censoring faculty and discouraging rigor that develops when students and professors debate, disagree and challenge assumptions or question authority. He said he views his ordeal as evidence of administrative overreach and academic fraud, which happens when scholars stay quiet for fear of reprisal and recrimination.
In the end, Professor Jackson’s case stands as a cautionary tale of what happens when universities prioritize ideological conformity over intellectual courage—and a reminder that defending academic freedom is worth the fight.
Until next week.
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, written by the NAS Staff. To subscribe, update your email preferences here.
Photo by Marius Masalar on Unsplash
