POSTED BY THE AAUP
We are pleased to announce the publication of volume 15 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. Our call for papers, “Truth-Telling versus Propaganda—Exposing the Rift,” invited scholarly articles building on the themes of the previous two volumes to advance understandings of the salience of academic freedom not only to higher education but also to democracy, social justice, international cooperation, and global problem-solving. These concerns seem all the more timely and urgent now that we are only a week away from the high-stakes US election.
Political actors working at local, state, and national levels have exploited misinformation about history, science, the environment, and more—undermining academically verifiable knowledge through the strategic use and misuse of new media technologies. The rift between propaganda and truth-telling has continued to widen through ongoing legislative and media attacks on education that weaponize critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our introduction to the volume and its fifteen contributions examine this rift, engaging in acts of collective truth-telling that bolster the vital role of higher education in a multiethnic democracy. We have organized the articles into five thematic clusters—focusing on artificial intelligence, authoritarianism, gender, Black history, and philosophical frameworks—that consider the rift’s implications for academic freedom from a variety of different angles.
We encourage readers to forward this email to friends and colleagues and to share links to article web pages on social media. You can access the complete volume at https://www.aaup.org/volume-15 or click on titles in the table of contents below. Please also read the call for papers for next year’s volume, “Philanthropy and Academic Freedom.” Submissions are due by March 5, 2025.
—Michael Dreiling and Pedro García-Caro, Faculty Coeditors
The Journal of Academic Freedom is supported by funding from the AAUP Foundation.
Table of Contents
Editors’ Introduction: Truth-Telling and Propaganda
By Michael Dreiling and Pedro García-Caro
Artificial Intelligence and Academic Freedom
The Art of Truth in the Social Media Age
By Amir Hussain
The Economics of Disinformation: Academic Freedom in the Era of AI
By Jorge Zumaeta
Artificial Intelligence, Academic Freedom, and the Evolving Debate over Forgery and Truth in the Twenty-First Century
By Natasha N. Johnson, Thaddeus L. Johnson, and Denise McCurdy
Paradoxes of Generative AI and the Simultaneous Promise and Threat to Academic Freedom
By Derek Dubois
Claudine Gay, Plagiarism, and AI
By William Arighi
Authoritarianism and Academic Freedom
Rising Antidemocracy, Declining Academic Freedom, and Challenges to Evidence-Based Knowledge
By Eve Darian-Smith
Academic Freedom and Society: Intellectual Critique or Violent Revolution?
By Ross Jackson, Jacqueline Heath, and Brian Heath
Academic (Un)freedom in Iran after 1979: (Transnational) State Suppression of Academia and Risks for (Diasporic) Academics
By Ladan Rahbari
Gender and Academic Freedom
Gender Identity, Ohio Politics, and Academic Freedom: A Critical Discourse Analysis to Expose Disinformation
By Dana Oleskiewicz, Janice Kroeger, and Erica Pelz
The Interplay of Power, Incentives, Academic Freedom, and Gender Equity
By Alice Wieland and Amy Jansen
Legislative Targets on Black History
Silencing Wingless Truth: Confronting the Suppression of Academic Freedom and Black Liberation in America
By Gerald D. Smith Jr. and J. R. Caldwell Jr.
A Precedent Set: Understanding the Florida Assault on Academic Freedom Targeting Black History and the Impact on Leadership Development
By Kimberly Hardy
Philosophical Frameworks, Truth-Telling, and Academic Freedom
Social Justice Education, Academic Freedom, and the First Amendment
By Gene Straughan
Let’s Recommit to Just and Democratic Truth-Telling Practices
By Brenda Solomon
Academic Standards in an Age of Mistrust
By Dennis Arjo
