Free Speech For People, a national non-partisan nonprofit dedicated to protecting and strengthening American democracy, announced today that MIT Professor Michel DeGraff has joined its Board of Directors and that human rights lawyer and author Marguerite Dorn has rejoined the Board. 

Professor DeGraff served as a professor at MIT Linguistics & Philosophy from 1996 until 2024, when MIT administrators transferred him to the School of Humanities – and subsequently changed his title to “Faculty-at-Large” – an action he has challenged as retaliation for protesting anti-Palestinian racism and for defending academic freedom and free speech. 

Born and raised in Haiti, Professor DeGraff earned his PhD in 1992 at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on the syntax of Haitian Creole. His research and activism challenge longstanding myths about Creole and other non-colonial languages, exposing the ways that linguistic hierarchies intersect with race, power and structural inequality. He is the co-founder and co-director of the MIT-Haiti Initiative, a founding member of Akademi Kreyòl Ayisyen, and a fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.

“Michel is a courageous and powerful scholar, thought leader, and longtime human rights advocate, and will be an exciting addition to Free Speech For People,” said Ben Clements, Free Speech For People’s Chairman and Senior Legal Advisor. “We are thrilled to have his expertise and perspective on racial justice, democratic participation, and the dangers of government and institutional suppression of freedom of thought and speech, as we continue our work across the country fighting for our democracy and our Constitution.”

Based in Seattle, Marguerite Dorn received her J.D. and a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Management from Boston College. She has held law school teaching and programming positions, and she started one of the first international human rights clinical programs at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Currently serving as Associate Ombuds at the University of Washington, Dorn has rejoined the Free Speech For People Board, where she previously served for several years.

“Marguerite embodies the values at the heart of Free Speech For People,” said Ben Clements.  “From launching one of the earliest human rights clinical programs in the country to guiding our organization with exceptional care and integrity, she has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to justice. We are honored to have her rejoin our Board with her voice and vision helping to lead our work at this critical moment for American democracy.”

“As an educator and activist, I’ve witnessed first-hand how our freedom to speak and to teach — especially when we demystify patterns of discrimination and threaten entrenched hierarchies — can quickly lead to brutal repression, even among the “progressives” in academia,” said Michel DeGraff. “Yet the struggle for free speech is inseparable from the struggle for our collective liberation. My work as a linguist at MIT and in Haiti has taught me that language, linguistics, education and dissent are essential, yet fragile, tools for a genuine democracy.  From Haiti to Palestine to university campuses like MIT, people are punished when they expose and challenge systems of domination and demand justice. So this seems the right moment for me to join hands with our comrades at Free Speech For People. Indeed, the basic ingredients of FSFP’s valiant campaigns to defend the right to speak, learn and advocate — especially by and for the Wretched of the Earth — are essential to any movement that seeks to affirm the human rights and dignity of us all and to imagine and build a more just world.”

“Americans across our land – of every age, gender, ethnicity, political affiliation – are stunned by the Trump administration’s blatant objectives toward kleptocracy and tyranny,” said Marguerite Dorn. “We will not stand by idle. Nor do we stand alone. With its tireless leadership and strategic brilliance, Free Speech For People champions democracy, the rule of law, and the primacy of our Constitution. It is a vital bulwark against those who would tear down the foundations of what actually makes our society great. I am honored to stand alongside it.”