The following statement is written on behalf of Sweatshop Literacy Movement Inc. in support of Associate Professor Jumana Bayeh. As a distinguished and respected community of Australian writers, artists and thinkers, our organisation is deeply concerned about the recent removal of Dr Bayeh’s invaluable position at Macquarie University in the field of Middle East studies, and more specifically, Arab diaspora research.

As is well-known within the Australian arts sector, Sweatshop is an internationally recognised grass-roots organisation devoted to empowering culturally and linguistically diverse communities through reading, writing and critical thinking. Over the past decade, we have mentored thousands of young writers, facilitated hundreds of writing workshops and residencies in schools and universities, and published a critically acclaimed catalogue of anthologies and single-authored texts in prose, poetry and non-fiction. We have also produced podcasts and short films, and presented book launches, readings and performances across Australia.

The growth, progress and success of our organisation, as well as the individual achievements of many of our writers, could never have been possible without the ongoing support, mentoring and pastoral care provided to our community by Dr Jumana Bayeh. As a leading Lebanese-Australian non-fiction writer, humanities academic, and community organiser, Dr Bayeh has worked tirelessly and unconditionally with our organisation to address ongoing, structural and systemic forms of discrimination, which radically impact the safety and wellbeing of all Australians. In particular, Dr Bayeh’s role within our organisation has tackled issues such as anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Arab racism, anti-Semitism, White supremacy, Orientalism and settler colonialism. Her work in these areas has always centred the intersections between race, class, gender and sexuality — taking into consideration the experiences and rights of people who identify as women and LGBTQIA+, as well as people who live with disability and come from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Dr Bayeh’s contributions to our organisation and community include:

• Participation on numerous panels and cultural seminars, most of which have been presented in partnership with Australian writers’ festivals, bookstores and theatre companies.

• Participation on boards and steering committees for significant cultural programs and initiatives, including numerous emergency relief fundraisers and fellowships for First Nations and culturally diverse writers.

• Facilitation of writing workshops and residencies to support the creative and intellectual development of the 100+ practitioners within our ongoing literary collective.

• Providing editorial support and official mentoring to emerging writers, resulting in the publication of their works in acclaimed anthologies and online platforms, including Meanjin, Southerly, Mascara Literary Review, Griffith Review and SBS Voices.

• Contributing as a writer and researcher to several of our high-profile projects, most notably, co-writing the official introduction to Sweatshop’s critically acclaimed publication: The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism by Professor Ghassan Hage.

• Spear-heading several new publications which seek to unify First Nations, Arab, Jewish, White and CaLD communities across Australia, including Dr Bayeh’s role as a writer in our forthcoming anthology of Arab and Jewish Australian stories (2027).

Beyond Sweatshop, Dr Bayeh’s impeccable scholarship and expertise on Australia’s Arab diaspora literature stands in a league of its own. Numerous academics, researchers and authors recognise Dr Bayeh as the preeminent scholar and specialist on the growing canon of Arab diaspora literature in Australia. This is made evident by Dr Bayeh’s seminal work, The Literature of the Lebanese Diaspora (Bloomsbury, 2019), and her widely acclaimed literary criticism in articles such as Twenty Years of September 11 (Overland, 2021). Dr Bayeh also wrote the brilliantly-crafted preface to the ten-year anniversary edition of Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s award-winning debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014/24).

Sweatshop Literacy Movement cannot overstate the significance of Dr Bayeh’s position within Macquarie University. To date, Dr Bayeh is one of the few academics from a Middle Eastern background working in the field of Middle East studies at an Australian university. As such, she is the symbol, representative and hope of an entire generation of students and future scholars who seek to ethically understand and participate in the field of Middle East studies. During this period of heightened anti-Arab, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic tensions, it is a travesty that Dr Bayeh’s role at Macquarie University has been cancelled.

Over the past two years, Macquarie University has frozen ARC funding of distinguished academic and author, Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, and also just made another Arab academic redundant, Dr Jyhene Kebsi. The overt cancelation and silencing of esteemed Arab-Australian women in key positions of cultural influence points towards a pattern of institutional racism at Macquarie University. We demand full transparency as to why these positions have been stifled, and call on the University to reinstate Dr Bayeh immediately.