So, Daily Academic Freedom isn’t daily any more. Daily blogging throughout the first half of this year was exciting and rewarding and taught me a great deal about academic freedom, but it also took a toll on the rest of my work, and on my work-life balance. Regular readers will know by now that I have launched a monthly online column with University Affairs, the magazine of the Association of Universities and Colleges Canada (AUCC). Henceforth, I plan to house my “big ideas” there.
I won’t be blogging on a daily basis here again (unless a new crisis restarts my engine). However, I want to continue to use this space as a repository for academic freedom-related information and news, and as a place to test drive the ideas that will appear in a more polished form in Dispatches on Academic Freedom, my University Affairs column.
It’s been about a week since I blogged here, and in that week, I’ve seen a bunch of new stories about academic freedom, or about the related area of campus free expression/speech. I want to register here the existence of those stories, and link to them for those readers who wish to read further.
In no particular order, then, (or, rather, in approximately the order of the open tabs on my browser) here is this week’s academic freedom round-up:
The Myth of ‘Liberal Intolerance’: Eric Alterman in The Nation. Alterman argues that reports of threats to free speech on campus are overblown, even according to conservatives like Francis Fukuyama and Charles Murray. Alterman ends the piece by suggesting that “the Trump administration’s disastrous policies on college loans and the tremendous unpayable debt it is seeking to saddle students with” are much more serious worries than a few lefty students and profs.
EU Acts Against Hungary, Citing Academic Freedom: Speaking of worries worth taking seriously, we’ve talked here before (here and here and here) about the Hungarian government’s attacks on academic freedom. Last week, the European Parliament took the unusual step of voting (by an overwhelming majority) to call on member states to decide whether Hungary is in breach of EU values. Here are more details from the horse’s mouth. And here’s a quote from the European University Association:
While the situation is alarming in several countries including Turkey and Russia, Hungary is the first EU member state to systematically interfere in university matters and repeatedly violate academic freedom.
How a Professor Was Punished for an Act of Citizenship: Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic recounts the tale of Plymouth State University professor emeritus Michael Fischler, who was sanctioned by university administrators for submitting a letter attesting to the character of a defendant in a criminal case. Click through to Friedersdorf’s story for the details. The big worry raised by the case is that PSU’s treatment of Fischler risks creating a chill for other scholars in similar situations. Here’s an excerpt:
“By imposing penalties on these professors, PSU runs afoul of the First Amendment and its own academic freedom policies,” the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education declared in a condemnatory statement. “Although adjunct professors are without the benefits of tenure, public universities may not refuse to rehire them over protected expression, as such an act is retaliatory in nature and violates their First Amendment rights.”
No, I Will Not Debate You: Laurie Pennie in Longreads explains why she won’t publicly debate figures from the far-right, and worries that (contra liberal optimism) sunlight can’t disinfect fascism. She concludes: “there are no new ideas on the far right. There are only new recruits. And every time progressives sacrifice the public good on the altar of personal purity, there will be more.”
After firing of museum director, artist walks out of exhibit on opening night at CSULB: Do university curators have academic freedom? Not, perhaps, at California State University Long Beach. A few days ago, CSULB Art Museum Director Kimberli Meyer was fired, seemingly for hosting a controversial art installation on the police killing of Black civilians.
Another grim year for free speech on Canada’s campuses: Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom (JCCF) peeps John Carpay and Michael Kennedy relay to National Post readers the latest JCCF campus free speech report card results. University of New Brunswick Classics prof Matthew Sears responds in a characteristically trenchant Twitter thread (and prescribes this very blog for journalists who wish to better understand academic freedom and campus free expression!).
McMaster University ahead of Premier Doug Ford’s free speech edict: Ontario post-secondary institutions have begun to reply to the provincial government’s new requirement (I discuss it here, here, here, and here) that they create campus free speech policies. Here‘s what McMaster University has been up to.
Jordan Peterson Threatened to Sue a Critic for Calling Him a Misogynist: The Cut reports that University of Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson threatened to sue feminist philosopher Kate Manne, her university, and Vox magazine for a Vox interview in which Manne offers characterizations like the following: “I also suspect that for many of Peterson’s readers, the sexism on display above is one tool among many to make forceful, domineering moves that are typical of misogyny.” We have discussed other (actual, not merely threatened) lawsuits by Peterson here and here and here. You may be puzzled about how it is that a vocal campus free speech advocate like Peterson keeps launching or threatening lawsuits against fellow scholars for things that they say. I’m a little puzzled by that too. I guess the world is just a confusing place.
Daily Academic Freedom 