BY HANK REICHMAN

James Vernon, the Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley and former co-chair of the Berkeley Faculty Association, is also leading Berkeley’s recently launched Global Democracy Commons project.  I was honored that James invited me to interview for the first installment of the program’s new monthly podcast series that will “address the myriad forces seeking to foreclose public universities as spaces of critique and democratic protest across the globe.”  To mark the 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, and the introduction of new restrictions on protests at the University of California and at over a hundred campuses across the U.S., my conversation with James explores the relationship of free speech and academic freedom to the fragile history of democracy in America over the past century.

This was one of the most interesting and stimulating discussions I have had on this topic and I hope readers of the Academe blog will check it out   You can listen to the hour-long podcast or read the transcript here:

Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and the Fragile History of American Democracy

Contributing editor Hank Reichman is professor emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay; former AAUP vice-president and chair of the AAUP Foundation; and from 2012-2021 Chair of AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure. His book, The Future of Academic Freedom, based in part on posts to this blog, was published in 2019.  His Understanding Academic Freedom was published in October, 2021; a second edition will be published in March 2025.