Fired professor back in classroom
James Tracy invited to speak despite wrongful termination lawsuit.
BOCA RATON — James Tracy stepped into a college classroom Thursday for the first time since Florida Atlantic University fired him two years ago.
And not just any classroom — the same Boca Raton school he’s suing to get his job back.
An FAU professor invited Tracy — a former professor known for posting controversial conspiracy blogs about mass casualties — to deliver a two-hour lecture on the Central Intelligence Agency’s influence on mainstream media to a political science class.
It was Tracy’s first time back at the campus since clearing his office after his 2016 dismissal, which led to an ongoing federal lawsuit.
“I’ve always loved being in a classroom since graduate school,” Tracy, once a tenured professor at Florida Atlantic’s School of Communication, told The Palm Beach Post. “Academia isn’t the highest-paying profession in the world, but there are perks you can’t put a price on in terms of teaching.”
About 70 stud e nts attended his two-hour lecture, which Tracy and professor Marshall DeRosa barred students from recording, according to the university’s student newspaper, The University Press.
Tracy spoke of how CIA operatives allegedly work with some journalists to release propaganda to the public. He touched on how media labels “anyone who questions official narratives” a conspiracy theorist — an allusion to Tracy’s past.
Tracy was called a “conspiracy theorist” by The New York Times in 2012 after his claims that the 2012 Newtown, Conn., shooting that claimed the lives of 26 was staged by crisis actors.
DeRosa, also a controversial figure, questioned how the public could find the “real news,” The University Press’ Cameren Boatner reports.
D eRosa, a conservative scholar, sparked public outrage in recent weeks after students found essays where he called transgender activist and former athlete Caitlin Jenner a “freak of nature” and described “black supremacy” as a major factor in slavery, according to reports.
The university recently removed campus posters of DeRosa surrounded by two Confederate flags reading “Marshall DeRosa is a white supremacist. Demand Action!”
Tracy’s guest-speaking gig was bittersweet for the fired professor, who says he hasn’t been able to land a job in academia since the controversy, despite applying at several universities.
“I still enjoy researching and writing, and I would still enjoy teaching as well,” Tracy said.
Thursday’s lecture was one Tracy used to deliver in his own classroom, where he taught courses on public opinion and the culture of conspiracy.
Tracy opened the lecture with a video featuring German journalist Udo Ulfkotte, who claimed the CIA bribed him into writing positive stories about the U.S. and negative pieces about Russia, The University Press reports.
One student commented that the video was “suspect” and another asked whether the CIA’s manipulation of the media could be positive.
The goal was to prompt students to critically analyze information delivered by mainstream media, Tracy said.
The students steered clear of asking about Tracy’s firing, at least during the lecture. A few students approached him about it after class, Tracy said.
Tracy sued the university that employed him for 13 years, claiming he was fired for using a personal blog to post controversial claims about mass killings, like the Newtown shooting and the Boston Marathon bombing.
A federal jury rejected that claim and sided with Florida Atlantic in December, but Tracy and his civil rights attorneys plan to appeal the decision.
After the legal blow, Tracy’s case lost steam. His attorneys filed post-trial motions that still sit with U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, records show.
Tracy can’t appeal the loss until those motions move forward.
Tracy suspects most students who attended the lecture weren’t aware of his past. He was fired before some of them started college, and national attention on Tracy faded shortly after his initial claims about Newtown.
But Tracy expects to be a public figure once again, claiming he will take his First Amendment case to the U.S. Supreme Court if he loses appeals in lower courts.
“I’m at the center of one of the most important freespeech cases in years,” Tracy said. “I think this is a case that will be cited in law school textbooks, one way or the other.”