Published: March 9, 2026
An academic conference on Palestine scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 28 at the University of Southern Maine was canceled after university officials terminated the event’s space agreement, citing federal sanctions against one of the planned speakers, Francesca Albanese.
The one-day conference, organized by the Maine Coalition for Palestine and Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights in collaboration with USM’s Department of Criminology and Sociology, was set to take place in Hannaford Hall on the Portland campus. More than 300 participants had registered at the time of the cancellation.
Organizers described the event as a forum focused on international law, media, and human rights. Speakers were expected to examine how legal frameworks and media narratives shape global understanding of the Israel-Gaza conflict and its broader political consequences.
University officials said they moved to cancel the event after learning that Albanese, who serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, was scheduled to participate virtually. In July 2025, Albanese was added to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, commonly known as the SDN List.
Individuals placed on the SDN List are generally prohibited from engaging in most financial transactions with U.S. persons or institutions. Sanctions imposed on Albanese reportedly included asset freezes and travel restrictions.
According to public statements issued at the time, Albanese was sanctioned under the administration of Donald Trump, which cited her criticism of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and letters she sent to several U.S.-based corporations indicating they would be referenced in a forthcoming U.N. report.
Conference organizer Fateh Azzam said the cancellation stemmed from differing interpretations of how sanctions regulations apply in this context. Organizers said they sought guidance from the Office of Foreign Assets Control and received written communication indicating Albanese’s virtual participation would be permissible under limited and specific conditions.
They stated that Albanese was not to receive an honorarium and that no funds would be exchanged. Based on that guidance and their legal advice, organizers said they believed hosting her virtually under those constraints would not violate federal sanctions law or require a special license.
University counsel disagreed.
In a statement to The Free Press, university spokesperson Samantha Warren said, “Hosting a conference that is still being actively promoted as including a speaker sanctioned by the U.S. government would put our public university in violation of federal law, potentially resulting in significant fines and putting at risk essential federal funding, such as Pell Grants and work-study, that ensure educational opportunity for our students.”
Conference organizers said they later offered to remove Albanese from the program altogether to allow the conference to proceed: a step they argue would have resolved the university’s stated legal concerns while preserving the broader academic discussion.
In response, Warren said the event could not move forward on such short notice.
“The sanctioned individual is still being actively promoted as participating on the conference website,” Warren said.
Organizers and some supporters have questioned whether the decision reflected necessary legal caution or an overly restrictive interpretation of sanctions law.
In a separate statement, Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights described the cancellation as the result of an “outside pressure campaign,” citing coverage of the conference in Jewish and Israeli news outlets as well as the right-wing publication The Maine Wire.
Despite the cancellation at USM, organizers relocated the conference to First Parish Congregational Church in Gorham, where it proceeded as planned. Supporters gathered Saturday, Feb. 28, to commemorate the more than 73,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza.
The cancellation and dispute raise broader questions about how sanctions laws intersect with academic speech, university programming, and the scope of institutional risk tolerance in politically sensitive contexts.
