Assistant Professor Nathan Brown teaches at UC Davis' English Department. He is also affiliated with the program in Critical Theory and the program in Science & Technology Studies. He is a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association.
Nathan Brown spoke at the UC system-wide strike rally held at UC Davis on November 15, an event that might be considered the beginning of Occupy UC Davis. The text of his speech is here. His speech had five theses:
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Tuition increases are the problem, not the solution.
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Police brutality is an administrative tool to enforce tuition increases.
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What we are struggling against is not the California legislature, but the upper administration of the UC system.
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The university is the real world.
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We are winning.
In the wake of the November 18, 2011 UC Davis Police Response to Occupy UC Davis, Brown published an open letter to chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi that was widely circulated on the internet. The fact that he is untenured makes his actions all the more impressive.
There is a widely cited portion of his letter regarding officers holding students' mouths open and pepper spraying down their throats:
"When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats."
There's no current evidence to suggest officers held anyone's mouth open during the November 18th incident. Some students got pepper spray down their throats, but it could have been simply due to being sprayed directly in the face, or from opening their mouths while being sprayed (screaming, for instance). If you have some evidence of this, please edit this page!
- Nathan Brown speaking at the rally on the quad on Nov 21, 2011.
Official English Department page
Brown also set up an Amazon Wishlist wherein people could buy him tents, presumably so he could supply them to students occupying the Quad.
