Journal of Academic Freedom Explores History and Disinformation

POSTED BY THE AAUP

We are pleased to announce the publication of volume 13 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. Our fall 2021 call for papers, “Memory Laws or Gag Laws? Disinformation Meets Academic Freedom,” invited scholarly responses to the wave of legislation seeking to ban or restrict teaching about race and racism.

As we discussed in the call for papers and in our introduction to the volume, patriotic scripts for the teaching of US history—and attempts to suppress what reactionary legislators deem “divisive” content—are predicated on nostalgia for “white-settler narratives of the nation’s founding.” We sought original articles that would put the legislative frenzy, and the disinformation tactics behind it, in broader local, national, and global contexts. The thirteen contributions selected for the volume reflect a wide range of perspectives on the relation of academic freedom to historical memory and to contemporary multicultural society in the United States and abroad.

We encourage readers to continue the conversation by commenting on articles and sharing links to article web pages on social media. Follow the links in the table of contents below, or access the complete volume at https://www.aaup.org/JAF13.

Please also read the call for papers for next year’s volume, “Landscapes of Power and Academic Freedom.” Submissions are due by March 20, 2023.

—Michael Dreiling and Pedro García-Caro, Faculty Coeditors

The Journal of Academic Freedom is supported by funding from the AAUP Foundation.

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Table of Contents

Wrinkled faces collageEditors’ Introduction: Memory Laws or Gag Laws? Disinformation Meets Academic Freedom
By Michael Dreiling and Pedro García-Caro

The Authoritarian Big Chill: Critical Race Theory versus Nostalgia in a Deep Red State
By John R. Wood

Black Out: Backlash and Betrayal in the Academy and Beyond
By Lori Latrice Martin

The War over the Future of Academic Freedom
By Libby Lewis

The Nondebate about Critical Race Theory and Our American Moment
By Harvey Graff

Do Bans on Teaching “Divisive Concepts” Interfere with Students’ Right to Know?
By Juliet Dee

Separate and Unequal Again: The Disparate Impact Texas Gag Orders May Have on Texas’s Second-Oldest Institution of Higher Learning
By Tabitha S. M. Morton

Research, Teaching, Both, or Neither: How GoKAR! Redefines Academic Freedom in a Post-truth Society
By Z. W. Taylor, Patricia Somers, and Joshua Childs

Teaching about Contemporary Controversies in High Schools and in University Teacher Education Programs
By Alan Singer, Chris Dier, Pablo Muriel, Adeola Tella-Williams, and Cynthia Vitere

Pride and Prejudice: Teacher Autonomy and Parent Rights in the Incorporation of LGBTQ+ Studies in K–12 Education
By Ricardo Phipps

Public Memory Generates Disinformation on 9/11 in Public Schools
By Amaarah DeCuir

Denial of Denial: Color-Blind Racism and Academic Silencing in France
By Iseult Mc Nulty

Blocking Access to the Recent Past: Threats to Academic Freedom in Postdictatorial Spain
By Sebastiaan Faber

Towards an Unpatriotic Education: Du Bois, Woodson, and the Threat of Nationalist Mythologies
By William Horne