The University of Tennessee (UT) – Knoxville on Monday announced it took “swift action” to terminate a faculty member who appeared to justify the political assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Tennessee filmmaker and organizer Robby Starbuck first surfaced the comments by Tamar Shirinian in a Sunday post to the social media platform X. Identified as a professor and anthropology researcher for UT – Knoxville, she reportedly wrote, “The world is better off without” Kirk.
“Even those who are claiming to be sad for his wife and kids,” wrote Shirinian, “his kids are better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath.” She then called Kirk’s widow a “sick f*** for marrying him.”
Meet Tamar Shirinian. Tamar is a professor at @UTKnoxville. Someone sent this horrific post to my DM’s. UTK must take action. Email: [email protected] to ask President @randyboyd to act now. Also, why do we even have queer theory or queer anthropology specialists at… pic.twitter.com/3mcxTzettr
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 14, 2025
UT – Knoxville confirmed taking action on Monday, when the university said it determined one of its faculty “failed to meet our expectations for civil engagement,” as “endorsing violence and murder do not represent the university or our values.”
The university announced, “The faculty member is out of the classroom, placed on administrative leave, and termination proceedings have begun.”
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The faculty member is out of the classroom, placed on administrative leave, and termination proceedings have begun.Teaching and shaping the lives of young people is core to the mission of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
— UT Knoxville (@UTKnoxville) September 15, 2025
Starbuck quickly identified the faculty member referenced by the university as Shirinian.
An archived version of a now-deleted faculty page for Shirinian indicated the academic received a bachelor’s degree in gender and women’s studies from the University of California – Berkeley in 2007, and later completed her master’s and doctorate degrees in cultural anthropology at Duke University, where she also received a certificate in feminist studies.
The faculty page described the fired professor as “a cultural anthropologist who is interested in the relationships between gender, sexuality, nationalism, political-economy, and social reproduction and how these are experienced, imagined, and felt and especially in the postsocialist and post-Soviet world.”
UT – Knoxville’s actions against Shirinian notably followed a public call for the academic’s termination by U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who made a similar demand after similar remarks were uncovered from a Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) assistant dean.
Another lunatic, left-wing radical who should be fired immediately. https://t.co/w5pJHXR8kV
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) September 15, 2025
Blackburn also amplified successful calls to fire Michael Rex, one of two professors who were dismissed from Cumberland University, while yet another Tennessee professor has been fired from Austin Peay State University.
Kirk was assassinated last Wednesday while holding an event at Utah Valley University. His accused killer has been identified as Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old college dropout who reportedly lived with a transgender romantic partner, and engraved antifascist and sexually suggestive statements into rifle cartridges recovered by authorities.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tamar Shirinian” by the University of Tennessee.Â
What an arrogant and stupid person, her work as a professor is done. With sanity returning to the world, she will join the ranks of being a well-educated barista.
Is this just a smokescreen action by UT to keep her around while the dust settles in order to turn her loose once again on our college students? Is she a citizen? Was she naturalized? Our universities are full of non-American professors who do not embrace American values. I know from personal experience.
This so called “teacher” is what breeds the like that killed Charlie Kirk. Does anybody remember that collage used to be a place where ALL views were expressed, and talked out. NO MORE. If you look at anything any way beside the Liberal way, you are kicked around till you quit, or change to the only way acceptable any more.