The Emory Wheel Since 1919
Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Volume 105, Issue 2
Printed every other Wednesday
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Professor discusses importance of Mvskoke language Willis subpoenaed after acknowledging relationship with prosecutor
By Spencer Friedland News Editor
Jack Rutherford/A sst. News Editor
University of Oklahoma Creek Language Professor Melanie Frye shares her experience teaching the Mvskoke language during an event with the Emory College Language Center. tionships when it comes to lan- Now, nearly 200 years later, Frye By Jack Rutherford guage,” Frye said. “Learning any- teaches Mvskoke to University of and Franklin Zhang thing is not just you learning on your Oklahoma students and younger Asst. News Editor own. There's people that contribute children during a series of three& Contributing Writer to your learning, to your knowledge.” day youth language camps. She This is the University’s latest discussed the specific methods she University of Oklahoma Creek effort in deepening ties with the uses to teach the language in her Language Professor Melanie Frye Muscogee Nation, which was forced introductory college course, which teaches the Muscogee Nation’s native to relinquish its approximately 4.3 includes memorizing 50 nouns and language for a living, but one of the million acres of land between the 24 infinitive verbs. Frye joked that youngest fluent speakers she knows Flint and Ocmulgee Rivers — includ- she “felt so bad” for her students, is a 52-year-old man. Not a single ing the land Emory sits on today — tasked with conjugating a long list child she knows, Frye said, speaks to the U.S. government in the 1821 of words. Mvskoke fluently. Treaty of Indian Springs. The state of “We want to instill the confidence Frye, a member of the Muscogee Georgia comprises 38 million acres, and they know who they are and Nation, reflected on her experi- and more than 10% of the state today where they come from and know that ences teaching Mvskoke in front of consists of land relinquished in the we have our language still for them to an audience of roughly 40 students, treaty. continue to learn,” Frye said. humanities faculty and community Frye detailed the history of Native Frye explained that groups of peomembers during an event yesterday displacement in the region, explain- ple are more easily accepted if they with Emory University’s College ing that the Indian Removal Act of have a distinct language. She said she Language Center. 1830 forced the Muscogee people to “I always have to talk about rela- relocate from Georgia to Oklahoma.
See MUSCOGEE, Page 3
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (96L) recently disclosed in a court filing that she and Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor for the Georgia election interference case, have had a “personal relationship” since 2022 but denied any wrongdoing. In the filing, Willis claimed that she has “no financial conflict of interest that constitutes a legal basis for disqualification.” Willis is leading the investigation into former U.S. President Donald Trump and his alleged attempt to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. Emory University Associate Professor of Political Science Bernard Fraga said that he believes Trump’s indictment will have minimal effect on the race. He added that Trump’s supporters will likely point to the affair between Willis and Wade as further evidence of a “witch hunt” to prevent the former president from running in the 2024 election. “This is just further evidence in their lungs [that] the entire thing was illegitimate,” Fraga said. “But the reality is that this, in a sense, has very little bearing on the legitimacy of the case itself.” Defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who is representing Trump and co-defendant Michael Roman, moved to have Willis and Wade disqualified from the case last month. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee subpoenaed the pair to testify on Feb. 15. Georgia State University Assistant
Professor of Law Anthony Michael Kreis, who previously lectured at Emory University, said that witnesses will testify to the “veracity” of Willis and Wade’s statements on Feb. 15. Additionally, he said that the lawyers will litigate the question of what constitutes a relationship. “Everybody’s definition of a relationship is different,” Kreis said. “When does the relationship begin? When is it just flirting? When is it a one-off encounter?” In court documents Merchant filed on Feb. 2 in response to Willis’ court filing, she claimed that Wade met Willis at a conference in 2019. She questioned if Willis and Wade began more than “just a friendship” when they first met. However, Wade affirmed in an affidavit that he did not form a personal relationship with Willis in addition to their “professional association and friendship” until 2022. He also asserted that he never shared financial accounts or household expenses with Willis. “I have no financial interest in the outcome of the 2020 election interference case or in the conviction of any defendant,” Wade wrote in the affidavit. “No funds paid to me in compensation for my role as Special Prosecutor have been shared with or provided to District Attorney Willis." Willis hired Wade in November 2021 to lead the team of prosecutors in the investigation into Trump and his associates for allegedly being involved in a “criminal racketeering enterprise” in an attempt to overturn
See RELATIONSHIP, Page 2
Professors foster student dialogue on Israel-Palestine conflict By Alyza Marie Harris Oxford Events Desk During a student-led rally last semester, students marched up the steps of Convocation Hall to demand that Emory University and Emory President Gregory Fenves acknowledge the loss of Palestinian lives in the Israel-Hamas war and protested Emory University’s ties to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. On the outskirts of the demonstration, Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus Richard Doner and Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Professor of African Studies Pamela Scully had their first full conversation, despite knowing each other for years. When Fenves later condemned protesters for using phrases he deemed “antisemitic” during the rally, Doner and Scully grew concerned about the “problems of a polarized campus” and decided to develop a reading course where students could respectfully discuss and debate the conflict. Other private colleges like Duke University (N.C.) and Columbia University (N.Y.) offer similar courses that explore the conflict. Duke has a course titled “Israel/Palestine:
Jack Rutherford/A sst. News Editor
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Professor of African Studies Pamela Scully (Left) and Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies Geoffrey Levin (R ight) teach classes on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Comparative Perspectives,” which the one credit, pass/fail course this “It is crucial to have difficult factexplores the conflict through an semester. The course, titled “Variable based discussions where diverse perinterdisciplinary lens. Columbia is Topics in Women, Gender & Sexuality spectives are heard and appreciated,” currently offering a reading group Studies: Reading Together on Israel/ Doner said. course on the modern history of Palestine,” is labeled as WGS 285 but The professors also wrote an open Palestine. will not focus on gender specifically, letter to Emory Stop Cop City and Scully and Doner are co-teaching Doner and Scully said. Fenves following the October 2023
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rally, criticizing the protest and the president’s subsequent statement as alienating some students. Doner expressed that he hopes an “institutionalized” open dialogue becomes permanent for Emory. Scully said she anticipates that their students can learn together through key readings and a collective safe space. The discussion-based course will focus on what Doner said is a fairly non-partisan, journalistic account. Course content will begin with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and end with more recent history. “We want to get away from weaponizing this discussion because we recognize that, A, these are … really complex issues and, B, a lot of people don’t know the history,” Doner said. Doner said that many students in higher education “find themselves in the middle” and are afraid to share their views on challenging topics for fear of being criticized. Scully added that such fears have gotten worse with the rise of social media. This lack of dialogue is not just felt by students, as the general feeling of security among faculty is “much less secure than it used to be,” Scully added. Nandini Kataria (27C) registered for the class because she thought it
See ISRAEL, Page 2
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