Ward Churchill, an American academic, activist and writer who was an ethnic-studies professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, died Aug. 11, 2026, at 78, and his former lawyer attributed the death to a stroke, CBS Colorado reported. His scholarship, activism and public statements made him a prominent figure in debates over academic freedom, free speech and academic integrity.
His teaching and writing focused on Native American history and the study of genocide, and he contributed to the Encyclopedia of Genocide. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, he wrote Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens, arguing that the attacks were a response to a long history of U.S. abuses. He called some World Trade Center victims “little Eichmanns,” comparing them with Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi official. The essay drew little attention until 2005, when it became the focus of a national controversy over free speech and academic freedom.
A preliminary university review in March 2005 found that the First Amendment protected Churchill’s essay and other public comments as political expression. It said separate allegations of plagiarism, misuse of others’ work and fabrication might constitute research misconduct and required further investigation. Three faculty committees later found falsification, fabrication and plagiarism in his scholarship. The university’s governing board dismissed him in 2007 for conduct below its minimum standards of professional integrity.
A Denver jury found in 2009 that the university had wrongfully terminated Churchill and awarded him $1 in damages. In 2012, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld rulings that protected the university’s regents from the suit, and Churchill’s effort to regain his CU job failed in state court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal in 2013, ending his court challenge to the firing.
