Robert Vitalis, a political scientist at Penn, is a man caught in the middle.  

He has spent most of his career identified with the left, and with Palestinian rights. And on this week's podcast episode, Vitalis defends the Palestine Writes conference, held in September 2023 at his university, against charges that it was antisemitic. He also decries donor meddling, and says candidly that Penn president “Liz McGill threw the academic mission” of the university “under the bus.” 

On the other hand, since the attacks of October 7, Vitalis has insisted to his friends on the left that they grapple with the crimes of Hamas—which has upset the very leftists who agree with him about Palestinians’ rights. “I've insisted over and over again that folks have to wrestle with the fact that Hamas committed these atrocities,”

Vitalis tells host Mark Oppenheimer in this episode of The Syllabus.

He also believes that “the massive retaliation by Israel” was “one of the things that [Hamas] wished for, in that it intended for Palestinian civilians to die …. By saying that over and over again, I've been accused of blood libels against the Palestinian people.” As a result, Vitalis has lost friends on both sides of the political aisle. And now this free-speech absolutist is seeking early retirement.  

Guest Bio: Robert Vitalis has taught political science at the University of Pennsylvania since 1999. His newest book, Oilcraft: The Myths of Scarcity and Security That Haunt U.S. Energy Policy, was published in 2020. 

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