Karen Leader (front) was placed on “administrative leave” after right-wing social media accounts targeted her comments on Charlie Kirk. (all images courtesy Karen Leader)Karen Leader, a tenured associate professor of Art History at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, has spent most of the last week afraid to leave her home, contending with a torrent of threats sent to her work email and left as voicemails.“I’ve never been afraid to go outside in my entire life,” Leader told Hyperallergic in an interview. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.” Leader, who also serves as the only faculty advisor to FAU’s College Democrats group, was placed on administrative leave by the university on September 13 over her social media posts criticizing Turning Point USA Founder and right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk’s political viewpoints. She is one of the reportedly dozens of educators across the country who have been reprimanded for their comments in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination in Utah last week. This week, the American Association of University Professors expressed “great alarm” over the wave of retaliation against faculty and students.FAU is a designated Hispanic-Serving public institution with an enrollment of approximately 31,000 students. It is the most ethnically diverse school in the Florida public university system, according to the FAU website. Leader’s posts in question, reviewed by Hyperallergic, were mostly reposts of other users’ comments about Kirk’s record of hateful statements, and did not specifically address or condone his death. Still, they were quickly targeted by right-wing individuals on social media, who tagged the university.A letter from FAU’s Department of Visual Arts and Art History, obtained by Hyperallergic, notified Leader last Saturday that she would be placed on paid leave related to her social media conduct pending an investigation.“The University has received complaints, which gives us reason to believe that your continued presence on the job adversely affects university operations,” the letter, signed by the department chair, read. “The investigation will include a review of your conduct, including, but not limited to, your recent social media posts that the University reasonably believes might disrupt the efficient functioning of the University, and/or jeopardize the safety or welfare of other employees, colleagues, or students.”Leader denied that any of her posts jeopardized the safety of anyone on campus or espoused hate of any kind. She said her intentions were to counter dominant narratives that Kirk practiced politics with civility, a view espoused in a highly criticized opinion piece by Ezra Klein in the New York Times, among others.One of Leader’s posts, dated September 11, read, “The predictable ‘blame the professors’ narrative is full circle, Charlie ‘Professor Watchlist’ Kirk. Ruining lives for fun and profit.” The comment made reference to the ways in which Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA targeted university professors whose views it disagreed with.Leader also annotated a series of X posts from September 11 and 12, republishing them with the caption “This was Charlie Kirk.” The posts she recirculated critiqued Kirk’s anti-LBGTQ+ and racist comments. She reposted another post, which was later determined by X to be factually incorrect, claiming that Kirk had used an anti-Asian slur; Leader deleted it as soon as she learned it was inaccurate, she said. Another repost was of a comment by an X user with the name “I smoked Charlie Kirk.” Right-wing commenters interpreted this as an endorsement of Kirk’s death, but Leader said that the user frequently changes their name in a similar format to reflect “smoking” trending headlines.“I didn’t say anything or do anything that encouraged violence at all,” Leader told Hyperallergic. “I did not say or do anything that celebrated his death, that said he deserved it, that in any way, shape or form, condoned violence.”FAU did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Leader highlighted in an interview with Hyperallergic that Turning Point USA caused fear among fellow academics. One professor Leader knows closely, whom she declined to name, landed on the organization’s “Professor Watchlist,” which targets professors that Turning Point claims “advance leftist propaganda.” Leader said her friend feared for their life when they were included. “Anyone who’s on that list knows that there still might be people coming into their class, literally to surveil them, signing up for their class to record them,” Leader told Hyperallergic.The university issued a public statement on its X profile announcing the forced leave of an unnamed professor after FAU’s president became aware of “comments on social media made by a tenured faculty member regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.” Leader said she did not address the death of Kirk in her posts, and that she views the president’s statement as a “mischaracterization” of her actual social media activity.After right-wing accounts fixated attention on Leader’s posts, including Southern Poverty Law Center-designated extremist Chaya Raichik‘s platform “LibsofTikTok,” Leader found posts revealing her home address and faculty email. She said she has filed reports with both FAU campus police and Boca Raton police. She has not heard from the administration since they sent her notice of administrative leave, she said.In recent weeks, Leader has become an increasingly prominent dissenting figure on campus. Over the summer break, the university reportedly signed an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through the 287(g) program, a partnership that would allow federal agents and local police to detain or identify individuals for deportation on the FAU campus. Leader spoke at a student protest condemning the agreement days before Kirk’s assassination. Among the issues Leader opposes on the university’s campus is the recent appointment of FAU President Adam Hasner, a former GOP state politician and former executive of the GEO Group, a private detention company that operates an ICE detention center in neighboring Broward County.Leader said she has some protections from her union as she undergoes the investigation process. Her classes have been moved online, she said, but she does not know who will instruct her approximately 105 students, and she fears her doxxing may also put students in harm’s way.“My free speech protects me from what I did,” Leader said. “But the response to it might get me killed.”