By James Matheson | Capital Gazette
A professor whose paper on homosexuality in naval adventure literature was accepted to a Naval Academy history symposium learned in June that his invitation had been rescinded — for reasons, he says, that have nothing to do with scholarship. He believes he was censored in line with an anti-LGBTQ+ stance of the Defense Department under President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Seth Stein LeJacq, a history professor at Hunter College in New York City, learned June 4 of his exclusion, a day after Tom McCarthy, chair of the Naval Academy’s history department, resigned from his post.
McCarthy, in his resignation letter, said he had been ordered to remove a previously approved paper “for reasons having nothing to do with scholarship” and resigned to avoid involvement in what he called a violation of trust and the possibility of harming the department’s reputation.
McCarthy did not respond to Capital Gazette inquiries regarding whether it was the exclusion of LeJacq’s paper that prompted his resignation.
News of McCarthy’s resignation and the paper’s removal have brought opprobrium from some Naval Academy graduates.
William Marks is the co-founder of Operation Caged Bird, an organization that opposed a purge of Naval Academy library books this spring. The former Navy spokesperson and Texas congressional candidate said censorship is not consistent with the ideals taught at the academy.
“As a history major at the Naval Academy, I was appalled to see legitimate academic papers being censored at the McMullen Symposium,” Marks, a 1996 grad, wrote in a statement. “The largest regular meeting of naval historians in the world requires that all perspectives be given fair and equal review — not just ones approved by the Trump administration. True freedom of thought allows authors and readers to decide, debate and defend the merits of their research.”
The Trump administration this year has undertaken a diversity, equity and inclusion purge at the Naval Academy. Since April, the academy’s curriculum, literature available in its library, its admissions policy and visitation regulations have been changed to comply with Trump’s executive order, “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” and initiatives that followed.
The Naval Academy said it had no comment in response to an inquiry.
The McMullen symposium, scheduled for Sept. 18-19 in Annapolis, is often described as the “largest regular meeting of naval historians in the world.”
LeJacq planned to discuss trends of naval adventure-fiction authors exploring gender and homosexuality in their novels, particularly Patrick O’Brian, the author of “Master and Commander” and its ensuing series. The English novelist’s 20-book series inspired the 2003 film “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and is popular among the naval community for its historical accuracy and meticulous descriptions of naval life.
LeJacq’s removed paper was titled “Liberation, Homophobia, and Historical Memory: Queer Pasts and Futures in Historical Naval Adventure Fiction.” It was accepted in May, according to an email obtained by the Capital Gazette that was signed by symposium committee Director Capt. Stan Fisher and then-Deputy Director Abby Mullen.
Neither Fisher nor Mullen responded to requests for comment.
On June 4, according to an email reviewed by the Capital Gazette, a Naval Academy staff member requested a phone conversation with LeJacq, who redacted the staffer’s name in an effort to remain cordial with the academy history department and symposium.
“The problem here is not fellow academics,” LeJacq said. “The problem is the Department of Defense and the presidential administration. That’s where the censorship is coming from.”
During the ensuing conversation, LeJacq was informed he had been uninvited.
“The person I spoke with was very clear it was not a problem of quality,” LeJacq said.
The symposium, held since 1973, is a biennial event that brings academics and researchers from across the globe to Annapolis to highlight the latest research on naval and maritime history.
“For an audience like McMullen, everybody there will know about the novels,” LeJacq said. “I wanted people to look at my evidence, I wanted pushback, critique and feedback — the kind of stuff that we do at academic conferences. I wanted experts and other people who really know the work to look at it closely.”
LeJacq, 39, earned his bachelor’s degree in history and government at Cornell University and holds a doctorate in the history of medicine from the Johns Hopkins University. He is a European historian, specializing in early-modern Britain, the history of medicine, and gender and sexuality.
In 2016, LeJacq wrote his Ph.D. dissertation about sexuality within British naval culture, and is currently writing a similar book about sex and gender in the British Navy from the 1600s to the mid-1800s.
LeJacq has presented at several academic conferences and is presenting his research Sept. 12-13 at the Britain, Conflict and the Sea conference at the National Maritime Museum in London.
“This is serious historical research,” LeJacq said. “I’m not reading into things, I’m not making stuff up. This is not just a trifling project. I read over 100 novels putting together the work for this book chapter.”
In his June 3 letter, McCarthy — then the chair of the history department — wrote: “Given that the selected papers were reviewed for scholarly merit, this order amounts to shaping conference content for reasons having nothing to do with scholarship. While I keenly understand the difficulties of our moment, vetting speakers and papers is not a good place to be for an American institution of higher education.”
The letter, addressed to Provost Samara Firebaugh, said that rescinding the paper for reasons other than scholarly merit is incompatible with the academy’s values.
McCarthy resigned as the history department chair but remains a faculty member.
“For 50 years, the history department has executed a trust on behalf of the international community of naval and maritime historians: to select papers for the biennial symposium solely on the basis of scholarly merit,” McCarthy wrote. “This decision forces us to violate that trust.”
Interim department chair Cmdr. Ryan Mewett did not respond to a request for comment.
The news of the removal of LeJacq’s paper is the latest example of the Trump administration’s swift extraction of all things DEI.
In April, the academy released a list of 381 books removed from its library as part of a review of diversity, equity and inclusion materials, following directives from Hegseth’s office to evaluate and eliminate works focused on DEI.
Ahead of Hegseth’s April visit to the academy, staff mistakenly removed and then replaced photos and items commemorating female Jewish leaders during a larger excision of DEI materials.
Later that month, the Naval Academy canceled a scheduled appearance from author and podcaster Ryan Holiday after he declined a request not to reference the removed books.
The Pentagon, in a May memo, ordered the removal of race as a factor in admissions at the military service academies. According to former Superintendent Vice Adm. Yvette Davids during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in March, the academy stopped doing so a month prior.
In May — after an additional Pentagon-ordered review — most of the nearly 400 removed books, hidden in a Nimitz Library closet under lock and key, were placed back on the shelves.
The academy’s first female superintendent was replaced last month after 19 months at the helm. Her reassignment is one that critics say is politically motivated and unwarranted.
“I would challenge the people who censored me to read my research and really engage with it,” LeJacq said. “I’ve done serious work and I stand by it. It should be judged on its merits, not just because of the topic or a word they don’t like in the title.”
First published in Capital Gazette
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