Boycott Extension Statement (April 2026)

Call to continue SCMS boycott after SCMS board bars Laura Marks' candidacy

April 18, 2026 

Dear all,

Last year, the group Scholars of Cinema and Media Studies in Solidarity with Palestine (SCMSSP) called for a boycott of the SCMS 2026-Chicago conference to send a message to the SCMS leadership that its members will no longer tolerate the association’s complicity in the  ongoing Israeli genocide and scholasticide of Gaza. We noted in that call that the SCMS Board of Directors’ decision to change the nomination process for Board members from a petition-based system to a self-nomination system was anti-democratic, in that it further dilutes the ability of SCMS members to exert collective pressure on the association by placing candidates on the ballot who represent their interests. We believe this move would serve as yet another means of blocking Palestine advocacy within SCMS (if this were not its signal intent). Our expectation was confirmed when we saw the most recent slate of candidates. Seeking to represent the will of the nearly 700 SCMS members who signed our petition to the board, Professor Laura Marks, a renowned scholar in cinema and media studies and a member of SCMSSP, advanced herself as a candidate for Board Member At-Large through the self-nomination process. Her candidacy was not featured on the ballot.

We realize that the SCMS Board has much room to plausibly deny that Professor Marks was not included on the ballot on account of her Palestine solidarity organizing. The process, after all, is entirely non-transparent. Under the new system, the Board no longer has to consider the support that a particular candidate may have garnered in a petition. Board members are required, moreover, to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement barring them from discussing their deliberations. It is only by rumor that we may know that candidates were struck from the ballot for their stance on Palestine – and we have heard such rumors. Hence our critique of the nomination process and, more broadly, the autocracy baked into SCMS governance structures, which appears designed to preclude any meaningful representation of the will of the association’s membership.

What is happening in SCMS is a microcosm of a broader struggle that is happening in virtually all U.S. academic and cultural institutions. Most recently, the American Historical Association (AHA) executive council autocratically vetoed two resolutions, one condemning the Israeli scholasticide in Gaza and the other condemning ongoing attacks on academic freedom, each of which had been approved by a majority of attendees at the 2026 AHA members meeting. As in other areas, Palestine sheds light on the failure of U.S. institutions to live up to their purported values. As Israel continues its genocide of Gaza and its ethnic cleansing of the West Bank under the guise of ceasefire, and as Israel and the U.S. begin an illegal war of aggression on Iran, it is high time for cinema and media scholars to demand better of the academic association that purports to represent us. 

We also ask that you write individually or collectively to the SCMS Board and demand transparency in its nomination and electoral process. Here is a link to the  to automatically generate a template email with suggested text and pre-filled email addresses that we ask you to slightly personalize [see highlighted text in brackets below that needs personalization]. Please send your letter by May 1st if possible. 

If the Board does not respond satisfactorily, we will call on SCMS members to refrain from renewing their memberships and to boycott the SCMS-2027 conference in Montreal. Please share this letter widely with SCMS members - both former and current.

Thank you, in solidarity

SCMSSP

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Template Email

to: yrivero@scmstudies.org

cc: nedda@gsu.edu, mboyd23@dccc.edu, jec10@sfu.ca,

thomasf9@illinois.edu, mikal.gaines@mcphs.edu, rmelnick@ucsb.edu,

k.sanson@qut.edu.au, CastonguaySCMS@gmail.com,

v.e.johnson@scmstudies.org, kristenwarner@cornell.edu,

kfortmueller@gmail.com

To SCMS Board and Officers:

I am writing as a [current/recent] member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) to express my deep concern over the lack of democratic representation, transparency, and accountability within SCMS tructures of governance. It has recently come to my attention that the new candidates for Board of Directors positions do not include any of the (self-)nominated members who have either been active in Palestine advocacy within SCMS or have referred on their platform statements to SCMS’s unsatisfactory stance regarding the Israeli genocide and scholasticide of Gaza. I know for a fact that this non-inclusion was not due to a lack of such candidates. As has been shared publicly, Professor Laura Marks, a member of Scholars of Cinema and Media Studies in Solidarity with Palestine (SCMSSP), self-nominated for the Board-at-Large position, but her name was not placed on the ballot. I understand that many factors go into deciding how to populate a ballot. Considering, however, that a resolution authored by SCMSSP concerning SCMS’s position on the Israeli genocide and scholasticide of Gaza was supported by upwards of 700 current and former SCMS members, thus rendering Gaza a key issue for SCMS, I expected that at least one candidate  who foregrounded that issue in their platform statement would have appeared on the ballot, so that the membership can deliberate with respect to the issue.

I am also aware that the SCMS Board peremptorily changed the SCMS election rules last year in a way that effectively empowers it to curate the list of Board candidates in the absence of member input. Under the previous system, which was by no means perfect, the SCMS membership could indicate support for candidates through a petition process. Under the new system, the Board no longer has to consider the support that a candidate may have garnered. I am disappointed by this veritable baking of autocracy into SCMS governance structures, which increasingly appear designed to preclude meaningful representation of the will of the association’s membership. As a member of SCMS, I expect transparency and accountability regarding governance decisions. I therefore demand answers to the following questions:

Why did the Board change its election process last year? Was a candidate’s involvement in Palestine organizing within and/or beyond SCMS a factor in the Board’s deliberations over whom to include on the ballot? Why are Board members required to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements prior to assuming their elected positions? Is the Board committed to representing the will of the SCMS membership through institutional process and democratic consent?

I also demand that SCMS hold an open discussion and debate about its governance structures, in order to move the association in a more democratic direction.

[Optional] Until SCMS takes serious steps to accommodate the will of its membership, not least regarding the genocide and scholasticide of Gaza, I will boycott SCMS conferences for the foreseeable future.

Sincerely,

[Name]