Watson organized the April 2022 Saint Vincent College conference 'Politics, Policy, and Panic: Governing in Times of Crisis' and invited Azerrad to speak, resulting in the 'Black Privilege and Racial Hysteria' controversy. Following the backlash, Watson resigned from Saint Vincent and joined Hillsdale's D.C. faculty in summer 2022, becoming Azerrad's colleague. Watson described himself as an 'intellectual refugee' and his story parallels Azerrad's experience of institutional backlash.