BY HANK REICHMAN Although, in a victory for academic freedom, the administration of Trinity College acknowledged last month that Professor Johnny Williams’s controversial social media posts “were protected by academic freedom and did not violate Trinity College policies,” a July 31 message to the campus from President Joanne Berger-Sweeney suggests that the school’s administrators still…
BY HANS-JOERG TIEDE In a victory for academic freedom, the administration of Trinity College in Connecticut acknowledged today that Professor Johnny Williams’s social media posts “were protected by academic freedom and did not violate Trinity College policies.” The administration’s statement observed that “Our understanding of academic freedom in America today is rooted largely in a…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Update, July 14: Trinity Dean of Faculty Releases Report after Review of Recent Social Media Activity July 14, 2017 To the Trinity College Community, Freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression in pursuit of the truth are essential, not only to the health of the academy but also to…
The following is the text of a letter sent yesterday to Joanne Berger-Sweeney, urging her to immediately reinstate professor Johnny Eric Williams to his normal faculty duties. Professor Williams, an associate professor of sociology with twenty-one years of service at Trinity College, was placed on leave Monday evening after being targeted with a flood of…
The following statement on the suspension of Professor Johnny Williams was issued by the Executive Committee of the Trinity College AAUP chapter. This morning Inside Higher Ed reports that “Williams said he was told by a dean that he was taking leave whether he wanted to or not, and that Trinity made its decision in…
BY HANK REICHMAN The shocking story of Trinity College professor Johnny Williams, target of racist harassment and death threats that led to a one-day shutdown of Trinity College, has taken another ominous turn. Today Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney issued the following statement: June 26, 2017 To the Members of the Trinity Community, As a…
BY HANK REICHMAN Besieged Trinity College professor Johnny Eric Williams yesterday issued a statement apologizing for his use of a controversial hashtag on a Facebook post, even as he remained in hiding out of fear of death threats made against him and his family. Those threats, as I reported Wednesday, compelled Trinity to shut down…
BY SIOBHAN SENIER Following is the guest editor’s introduction to the winter 2024 issue of Academe, out this week. The full table of contents for the issue is available here. In memoriam David Golumbia* In December 2020, a group of leading scholars of educational technology, including Jesse Stommel—a contributor to this special issue—held a landmark teach-in #AgainstSurveillance. The…
BY ELI MEYERHOFF AND ISAAC KAMOLA Learning is under attack. Right-wing politicians, activists, and well-funded political organizations have organized assaults on schools, universities, and libraries with book bans, surveillance and harassment of teachers, canceling classes, and “divisive concepts” bills that limit teachers’ rights to talk about topics of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The AAUP…
BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of an address delivered remotely, via Zoom, to the concluding session of a conference, “Universities at the Crossroads: Academic Freedom in a Changing World,” at GAU-Georgian American University, Tbilisi, Georgia, on October 1. Let me begin by thanking the organizers of this most important and interesting conference…