No Ethnic Profiling of Chinese Scholars

BY HANK REICHMAN The AAUP has joined with 18 21 other organizations in a statement released today by PEN America in response to reports that the FBI has urged universities to develop protocols for monitoring students and scholars from Chinese state-affiliated research institutions.  The full statement and list of signatories may be found here and…

Free Xiyue Wang!

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN Today, August 7, marks the third anniversary of the detention in Iran of Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang.  Wang, a Chinese-born naturalized U.S.citizen who previously worked as a translator in Central Asia, was conducting doctoral research on Iran’s Qajar dynasty that ruled from 1785 to 1925 when he was arrested…

Amy Wax, Academic Freedom, “Official” Positions, and the “Fitness” Standard

BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday Princeton political scientist and legal scholar Keith Whittington posted to this blog a piece entitled “Academic Freedom, Even for Amy Wax.”  Wax is a University of Pennsylvania law professor whose extramural expression, most recently at the pro-Trump National Conservatism Conference, has been widely condemned as intolerant and racist.  More than 1,000…

Academic Freedom, Even for Amy Wax

Guest blogger Keith E. Whittington is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University and the author of Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech. Amy Wax, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, has once again annoyed her colleagues and students and provoked calls for her prompt dismissal. It…

The Limits of Academic Freedom in the UAE

BY HANK REICHMAN In April I was privileged to appear on a program on academic freedom at New York University with Matthew Hedges and his wife, Daniela Tejada, sponsored by NYU’s AAUP chapter.  Hedges is a British scholar who was held in solitary confinement in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for almost six months after…

The Future of Academic Freedom on Future Trends Forum

BY HANK REICHMAN On July 11 I had the privilege of being a guest on Bryan Alexander’s “Future Trends Forum,” an online discussion venue focused in part on higher education issues.  If you aren’t familiar with the forum or Bryan’s excellent work, you should check it out here.  My session, which lasts about an hour,…

Firing Truth Doesn’t Make It Go Away

BY JOHN K. WILSON T.J. Martinson, a widely acclaimed novelist and author of The Reign of the Kingfisher, was hired in April as an Assistant Professor of English at Olivet Nazarene University, a Christian college in Illinois. And on June 28, Vice President Carol Summers informed Martinson that he will not be allowed to teach.…

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Declaration of the Global Forum on Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy

BY THE GLOBAL FORUM ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM, INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY, AND THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY June 21, 2019 DECLARATION The Global Forum on Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy was held at Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg on 20 – 21 June 2019 and co-organized by the Council of Europe; the International Consortium…