A Carnegie Mellon academic is on voluntary professional leave while the university investigates her social media posts.
Dr. Uju Anya, a scholar of language learning and Black experiences in multilingualism, joined the Pittsburgh research institution in 2021.
The decision followed public criticism of her online messages, prompting an official review by administrators.
Addressing the probe, Carnegie Mellon released a formal statement regarding her posts.
“We are deeply concerned by recent hostile and threatening social media posts by Dr. Anya and are reviewing the matter closely”.
The university emphasized that her online comments violated institutional standards.
“These posts incorrectly imply our university’s endorsement and are contrary to our community standards and values”.
The controversy escalated when a user questioned her comments, prompting a direct reply.
“Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I’m dancing”.
Billionaire Elon Musk reshared the interaction, drawing widespread attention to her prior posts.
In 2021, she celebrated the death of radio host Rush Limbaugh.
“Rush Limbaugh finally did something positive in life by dropping dead. Good Riddance to bad rubbish”.
Her past posts also wished Queen Elizabeth II an excruciating death and celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death.
Describing the online reaction, the professor characterized the response as harassment.
“During an entire day of incessant violent threats, racist abuse, and harassment on Twitter — incited by fascist white supremacist MAGA trolls — I was doxxed”.
She maintained her position and refused to apologize.
“I meant every word I said in my tweets responding to white men and all others insulting and maligning me. I do not retract or apologize”.
Carnegie Mellon confirmed Dr. Anya is not teaching courses on campus this year.