NYU canceled talk on USAID cuts for being 'anti-governmental', doctor says
Source: The Guardian
NYU canceled talk on USAID cuts for being ‘anti-governmental’, doctor says
University called Dr Joanne Liu, ex-head of Doctors Without Borders, after planning to speak on Gaza and federal cuts
Anna Betts in New York
Mon 31 Mar 2025 15.40 BST
Last modified on Mon 31 Mar 2025 16.15 BST
The former international head of Doctors Without Borders says she was left “stunned” after New York University canceled her presentation because some of her slides discussing cuts at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) could be viewed as “anti-governmental”.
Dr Joanne Liu, a pediatric emergency physician at Sainte-Justine hospital and a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who also served as the former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), told CTV News last week that she was scheduled on 19 March to give a presentation at her alma mater on challenges in humanitarian crises.
The night before her presentation, she said she received a call from the school’s vice-chair of the education department, who voiced concerns about the content of some of her slides, including those mentioning casualties in Gaza as a result of the Israel-Hamas war, and those discussing cuts at USAID.
Liu, who said she was already in New York when she received the call, told CTV News that she was told that the slides about Gaza “could be perceived as antisemitic” and that the USAID slides might be perceived as “anti-governmental”.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/31/doctor-nyu-usaid-gaza-presentation-canceled
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