BY AMIR HUSSAIN Critics and educators may plausibly perceive social media as preferring and promulgating fragmentary thinking, consumerist scrolling, and buzzwords over the attention to nuance and context that is cultivated in university settings. But the emergence of this arena nonetheless needs to be seen as relevant—even vital—for considering the intellectual and political landscape of…
BY ROSS JACKSON As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the importance of academic freedom in higher education and its broader societal implications are a primary point of focus and debate. Academic freedom, defined as the principle that scholars can engage in teaching and research without fear of censorship or retribution, is a cornerstone of democratic…
POSTED BY THE AAUP We are pleased to announce the publication of volume 15 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. Our call for papers, “Truth-Telling versus Propaganda—Exposing the Rift,” invited scholarly articles building on the themes of the previous two volumes to advance understandings of the salience of academic freedom not only to higher…
BY RUBÉN MARTINEZ Crises in intellectual and religious thought have been opportunities for the reformulation of the basic principles and ideas of existing bodies of knowledge for decades. In the 1920s and 1930s, legal realism raised the specter of the destructive character of accepted theories of law. In the 1960s, Vatican II, the twenty-first Roman…
POSTED BY THE AAUP We are pleased to announce the publication of volume 14 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. Our call for papers, “Landscapes of Power and Academic Freedom,” invited scholarly articles investigating the links between social power and the historical development and contemporary status of academic freedom. Seeking submissions that would build on…
BY JENNIFER RUTH “Where woke goes to die.” Let’s call this phrase what it is: fascist propaganda. In “The Collapse of Radical Reconstruction,” the first episode of Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s podcast “History is Us,” Le Moyne College professor Douglas Egerton says, “Reconstruction did not fail. Reconstruction was killed.” What does “where woke…
POSTED BY THE AAUP Volume 14: Landscapes of Power and Academic Freedom The 2023 issue of the Journal of Academic Freedom seeks original articles that investigate the links between landscapes of social power and the historical development and contemporary status of academic freedom. For over a century, the AAUP has defended the profession against attacks…
BY ALAN SINGER Academic freedom is the most sacred tradition in American universities. Academic freedom generally ensures that “both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual debate without fear of censorship or retaliation” and “establishes a faculty member’s right to remain true to his or her pedagogical philosophy and intellectual commitments.” Although K–12 teachers…
BY HARVEY J. GRAFF In my new Journal of Academic Freedom article, “The Nondebate about Critical Race Theory and Our American Moment,” I discuss battles over the past in the context of the US reckoning with truth, reconciliation, collective knowledge, and the pursuit of an inclusive, equitable democracy. These battles at the intersection of past,…
POSTED BY THE AAUP We are pleased to announce the publication of volume 13 of the AAUP’s Journal of Academic Freedom. Our fall 2021 call for papers, “Memory Laws or Gag Laws? Disinformation Meets Academic Freedom,” invited scholarly responses to the wave of legislation seeking to ban or restrict teaching about race and racism. As…