Adjunct not rehired after showing classical image of Prophet Muhammad
Erika López Prater, an adjunct art-history instructor at Hamline University in Minnesota, was told her contract would not be renewed after she showed a 14th-century Persian painting of the Prophet Muhammad in an October 2022 class, despite advance warnings. The university president later acknowledged academic-freedom missteps and López Prater sued.
In October 2022, Hamline University adjunct Erika López Prater showed students in her global art-history class a 14th-century Persian image of the Prophet Muhammad, after issuing warnings in the syllabus and verbally before the slide. A Muslim student complained; the university's administration described the act as 'undeniably Islamophobic' and declined to renew her spring contract. After national criticism from PEN America, FIRE, and Muslim scholars defending the historical image, the president and board acknowledged in January 2023 that calling the act Islamophobic was 'flawed.' López Prater sued for religious discrimination and defamation; the case settled in 2024.