Donna Hughes is a Professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI) in the Gender and Women's Studies Department. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence and has long conducted research on human trafficking, particularly the sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and girls. After publishing an article entitled, "Fantasy Worlds on the Political Right and Left: QAnon and Trans-Sex Beliefs" at 4W, the calls for her firing began online. Due to her criticisms of gender identity ideology, the University denounced her with zero conversation. Hughes is a founding member of the recently-launched Academic Freedom Alliance.  She told Inside Higher Ed that her case demonstrates “precisely why the AFA was founded and is so necessary.”