Gilberto Padilla Mercado, a doctoral candidate in the MGM program, tweeted that Cullen has “expressed reactionary rhetoric for many years now, and is set to retire soon.” I should add that this professor has repeated history of transphobia & homophobia.” On Twitter, Alan Rosales, doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering, posted screenshots of the original email and Cullen’s reply and tweeted, “A tenured-professor REPLIED ALL (second picture) with this disgusting response. In response to Ark, Cullen wrote, “Well freedom of speech is precisely about tolerance for opinions you disagree with, or were you not familiar with that concept? Certainly, intolerance for opinions outside the realm of wokeness is now a defining characteristic of almost all major universities in the USA.”Īrk wrote in his email to The Chronicle that his reaction to Cullen's original response was "visceral disgust," claiming that Cullen has "a history of xenophobic, homophobic and racist behavior." The comic trivializes self-identification of gender," Ark wrote in an email to The Chronicle Wednesday morning. "No less than 30 minutes before the reply-all, was complaining about it making light of identity politics. Above a “Highly Cited Researcher 2019” certificate presented to Cullen, the strip depicts a young person attempting to purchase beer from a cashier, saying, “I identify as 21! So are you gonna sell me a beer…or are you a hater?”
“It is unfortunate you will not be attending Bryan as you might learn that posting comics with transphobic undertones is typically inappropriate for a prestigious Duke tenured faculty member,” doctoral candidate Jonathan Ark wrote in an email reply obtained by The Chronicle.Īrk included an image taken by another graduate student of a comic strip on a bulletin board outside Cullen’s office, according to Ark.