BY JOHN K. WILSON Many people on AcademeBlog, including Hank Reichman, have made interesting comments on the so-called “Sokal squared” hoax. Earlier this month, I was a discussant at a session focusing on the hoax at FIRE’s annual faculty conference, and I think it’s important to discuss the academic freedom implications of the hoax. I have…
BY HANK REICHMAN This afternoon I had the pleasure of joining a demonstration of University of California librarians and their supporters outside the Berkeley campus’s Doe Library where the latest bargaining session between the UC-AFT Librarians and the UC administration was taking place. As I previously reported, academic freedom is a central topic of negotiation. …
BY HANK REICHMAN In a victory for academic freedom, U.S. student Lara Alqasem, who is of Palestinian descent, will be allowed to enter Israel to study at Hebrew University after the country’s Supreme Court today accepted her appeal of the decision to prevent her entry. Alqasem, whom the government claimed was a BDS activist based…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN A group of 120 academics and human rights activists of Iranian origin have called on Iran to free imprisoned Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was arrested in Tehran by agents of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry in 2016 while he was conducting archival research and sentenced to ten years in prison…
BY HANK REICHMAN On Monday, the Association of University Heads of Israel sent a strongly-worded letter to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan warning of damage caused to Israel by the ministry’s decision to bar American student Lara Alqasem from entering the country, the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports. The letter came a day after…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday the sad news arrived of the passing of Bob O’Neil, founder of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression, former president of the University of Virginia and of the University of Wisconsin system, and prominent First Amendment scholar. Bob served three terms as general counsel of the AAUP and was chair…
BY JOHN K. WILSON The National Association of Scholars today issued its 11th annual “Beach Books” report critiquing common reading programs. The NAS press release is shockingly titled, “Study Finds College Common Reading Programs Indoctrinate Students.” And it declares, “American colleges and universities run common reading programs designed to indoctrinate students with progressive propaganda….” Exactly how…
BY LEAH P. HOLLIS My Journal of Academic Freedom article “The Ironic Interplay of Free Speech and Silencing discusses academic freedom in the context of workplace bullying. In it, I consider the need to balance free speech rights with an individual’s right to a psychologically safe workplace. During my campus visits and talks about workplace…
BY HANK REICHMAN On Friday, September 28, about 100 California community college faculty members gathered at Berkeley City College for a day-long conference on academic freedom co-sponsored by the Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges Educational Institute (FACCC-EI) and the AAUP Foundation. The conference highlighted the growing importance of academic freedom in community colleges…
BY BIKO MANDELA GRAY, LORI LATRICE MARTIN, AND STEPHEN C. FINLEY “Hello?” The number on the caller ID is an unfamiliar one, but you know the area code; recently, you gave a job talk in that area or submitted your tenure or promotion portfolio. And so, you hope that this is the phone call—that phone…