Uju Anya in Fresh Trouble: University Confirms Review Over “Hostile” Posts
Carnegie Mellon University said this week that it is reviewing a series of social media posts by Dr. Uju Anya, an associate professor of second language acquisition, after the posts drew widespread attention online for mocking the death of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk around the one-year anniversary of his assassination.
In a statement posted to its official X account, the university said Dr. Uju Anya is currently on voluntary professional leave and is not teaching courses on campus this academic year. The university added that it is “deeply concerned by recent hostile and threatening social media posts” by Dr. Anya and is reviewing the matter closely.
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Carnegie Mellon also sought to distance itself from her comments, noting that the posts “incorrectly imply” the university’s endorsement and run contrary to its community standards.
The controversy centers on a post Dr. Anya shared on September 11, 2026, a day after the anniversary of Kirk’s fatal shooting last year in Orem, Utah. In the post, she wrote, “Die first, white man, then ask yourself why I’m dancing.” Critics circulating screenshots of her account also pointed to other remarks they said she had made about Kirk since his death, describing them as celebratory and demeaning. Her account was later deleted amid the backlash, though it remains unclear whether she removed it herself or whether the platform took action.
The post surfaced amid a broader and highly organized meme trend that took hold across several platforms in early September, as social media users marked September 10 with terms like “Kirkmas” and “Kirkiversary.” Commentators and researchers tracking the phenomenon have described “Kirkiversary,” alongside variants such as “Kirkaversary” and “Kirkentine’s Day,” as a viral, often mocking commemoration of Kirk’s death that spread across TikTok, X and other platforms in the run-up to the anniversary.
The account that first flagged Dr. Anya’s post, Libs of TikTok, had separately published messages it said were sent by students and staff at other schools, including the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the Claremont Colleges in California, joking about the anniversary in similarly graphic language.
Kirk, who was 31 when he was killed, founded Turning Point USA in 2012 and built it into one of the most influential conservative youth organizations in the country, known for organizing campus debates and rallies in support of former President Donald Trump and the broader MAGA movement.
His widow, Erika Kirk, took over as chair and chief executive of the organization days after his death. Kirk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Utah Governor Spencer Cox marked the anniversary by designating September 10 as Charlie Kirk Day in the state, and the day was accompanied by a wave of tributes from supporters alongside the mocking posts that drew scrutiny at several universities.
Dr. Anya, who was born in Nigeria and has taught at Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Modern Languages since 2021, is no stranger to controversy over her online commentary. In September 2022, she drew national attention after tweeting that she hoped Queen Elizabeth II would suffer “excruciating” pain as the monarch lay dying, a post she tied to her family’s experience of the Nigerian Civil War and Britain’s colonial legacy.
That tweet, quote-tweeted by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, prompted Carnegie Mellon to issue a statement distancing itself from her remarks, which in turn drew criticism from faculty, students and free-speech advocates who accused the university of caving to donor pressure rather than defending academic freedom.
No disciplinary action followed, and Dr. Anya went on to earn early tenure at the university in 2024, a milestone she announced on social media with the message, “Hello, my enemies.”
Her academic work has focused on race, language and identity, examining how Black and African American students experience second language learning, and she has been recognized in recent years as a Duolingo Research Fellow and a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow.
She has also faced scrutiny before for other political remarks, including comments in 2024 in which she suggested the assassination attempt on Trump had been staged.
As of Saturday, neither Dr. Anya nor a Carnegie Mellon spokesperson had issued further public comment beyond the university’s statement on the review, and it remains unclear what, if any, formal action the university might take against her.
The episode has reignited the same debate that followed the 2022 controversy over how universities should respond when faculty members’ personal political speech, however inflammatory, becomes the subject of coordinated online campaigns calling for their removal.
