Former assistant professor Tamar Shirinian says her $1.9 million settlement with the University of Tennessee System was "not actual justice" for being fired from the flagship Knoxville campus over her online comments about Charlie Kirk.
"It can't be justice because they robbed me of a year of my professional life," Shirinian told Knox News. "They robbed me of a year of feeling just secure and stable in my family life."
Approved in June, the settlement ended Shirinian's federal lawsuit against the university that alleged political pressure from U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett and an anonymous donor who threatened to withhold millions of dollars in contributions unless she was fired. The payout represents one of the largest free-speech lawsuit settlements
in the country stemming from comments made about Kirk after his September 2025 assassination.
"The settlement allows me to move on with my life, but it is not actual justice. And there can't be," Shirinian said. "There can't be any rectification of what they have done, and I sincerely hope that this settlement is large enough that it dissuades them away from ever doing this to anybody ever again."
Shirinian said she doubts she could have remained at UT even if the settlement allowed her to return. During her legal fight, state lawmakers approved a law stripping tenure protections from professors and expanding university leaders' power to fire faculty members. She believes administrators would have used the law to force her out again.
With the settlement barring a return to UT, Shirinian is encouraging employees at the Knoxville campus and other universities to not let "powerful figures, state actors, billionaires" restrict their rights.
"It's a really terrifying law," she said.
Shirinian shifts her focus, encourages others to 'fight' for speech rights
Shirinian is now turning her attention to her next projects: an edited volume on social reproduction due out in January, a volume on political solidarity with a colleague and a monograph on feminism.
"I have plans. I will be in Knoxville some of the time. I'm going to be moving on and doing some other things for a while," Shirinian said. "I eventually will return to the classroom."
The settlement marked the end of a nearly yearlong saga that began Sept. 12, 2025, when Shirinian posted a comment on a friend's Facebook post two days after Kirk was killed. The comment, in part, said the "world is better off without him in it."
The university responded at an unprecedented pace, with UT System President Randy Boyd announcing an investigation three days later and UT Chancellor Donde Plowman quickly suspending Shirinian to begin the firing process. Shirinian sued the university in federal court the following month before Plowman finalized the firing in February.
Shirinian still doesn't know who shared the screenshot of her comment that was later amplified by a conservative social media provocateur, though she'd welcome a conversation about the consequences of that decision. The controversy and fallout have had a chilling effect on her speech and that of other academics, she said.
"If you are scared to speak because of what could happen, I assure you that things could happen, because speech actually can be dangerous, and it's most dangerous to those in power," Shirinian said. "But we need to take that risk and we need to fight for that right. And when consequences come, we have to continue to fight for that right so that we continue to have it."
Keenan Thomas is the higher education reporter for Knox News. Email: keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Fired Tennessee professor Shirinian says $1.9M payout 'not actual justice' | Exclusive
