Interview with Harry Keyishian

January 23, 2012 marks the 45th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Keyishian v. Board of Regents, perhaps the most important case defending academic freedom in the history of law (see the essay by Marjorie Heins today about the case). I interviewed Harry Keyishian via email about the decision that bears his name. Harry…

The Art of Censorship

Daniel Grant writes at Inside Higher Ed about the question of controversial art: “There are no rules of the road to help art instructors and college administrators in this realm.” Actually, there are many rules of the road long established by the art world and the theorists of freedom of speech. It’s very easy: you…

Penn State and Shared Governance

I’ve been tempted not to comment on the Penn State scandal simply because of the massive attention it’s already received and the fact that speaking out against child molestation is hardly a controversial stand. But the scandal is important precisely because of that attention, and what lessons are drawn from it. Henry A. Giroux and…

FIRE’s Misleading Attack on CSU-Chico

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), “While all of 2011’s Speech Codes of the Month flagrantly violated students’ and faculty members’ right to free expression, two of them were so egregious that they deserve special mention as 2011’s Speech Codes of the Year.” But FIRE got a lot of things wrong…

Santorum’s Call for Campus Censors

Rick Santorum certainly knows how to pander to an audience. He’s running far to the right in Iowa for the Republican Presidential nomination, and so he goes after those darn librul professors: “Let’s look at colleges and universities,” he said. “They’ve become indoctrination centers for the left. Should we be subsidizing that?” He also criticized…

Teaching Under Attack: Call for Articles

Call for articles: transFORMATIONS The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy ANNOUNCES A SPECIAL ISSUE TEACHING UNDER ATTACK CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS The editors of Transformations seek articles (5,000-10,000 words) and media essays (overviews on books, film, video, performance, art, music, websites, etc. 3,000 to 5,000 words) and items for an occasional feature, “The Material Culture…

Limbaugh’s Class Warfare Vs. College Presidents

Rush Limbaugh normally hates class warfare. So it was a bit unusual today when he came out and denounced millionaires. Of course, Limbaugh only hates one particular kind of millionaire: college presidents. Limbaugh declared, the bottom line here is 36 college presidents make a million dollars a year or more. Where is Occupy Wall Street?…

An American Prophet in a Foreign Land

I haven’t read David Graeber’s new book, Debt, which is leading to him being praised as “a prophet of the Occupy Wall Street movement.” What’s most interesting to me is that today’s leading academic voice of the issues sparking the 99% Movement is an American who teaches in England. And that’s because Graeber was pushed…