Academic Freedom - A Useful Knowledge Workshop {Recording}

featuring Dr. Jonathan Friedman, Director of Free Expression and Education Programs, Pen America

Campuses have become sites of polarization and heated disagreement, but also of trolling, harassment, and bad-faith actors and arguments. This session will focus on the core question underlying these dynamics: whether free speech and the goals of a diverse, inclusive campus are truly at odds, and why robust protections for academic freedom, though they can be nuanced and pose challenges, are vital to the academic mission.

The session will offer steps professors and administrators can take to effectively encourage both open and respectful exchange on campus and in classrooms, educate students and campus communities about free expression, and address situations in which racist or hateful arguments are put forth. The session is based on PEN America's philosophy as a long term champion of free expression as a global human right, in the U.S. and abroad, exemplified in its Campus Free Speech Guide.

featuring Dr. Dwayne Kwaysee Wright, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiatives and Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration, GSEHD

Recently, debates about Academic Freedom often center on the hypothetical professor who insists on using the “N” word or refuses to acknowledge a student’s chosen pronouns. While these types of incidents are not uncommon and cause great harm in the classroom, the discourse surrounding these incidents often places the professor as the aggressor and students as the victims. But what if the power dynamic was reversed?

Utilizing critical race counterstory as an analytical method, this session will present a scenario in a fictional state where both Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Affirmative Action are banned. At a public law school in this state, a Black female law professor must deal with a white male student who uses the “N” word in class. We will discuss this event in terms of First Amendment/Academic Freedom principles, and try to answer, from a public policy perspective, "Whom does the First Amendment protect, and who is left behind?"

featuring Adam Kissel, Visiting Fellow on Higher Education Reform, The Heritage Foundation

Understanding academic freedom entails understanding the special characteristics of an academic environment. While conservative and libertarian perspectives on freedom differ, they tend to agree that academia must focus on the discovery and transmission of truth.

Since experience teaches us great humility about "truth," free inquiry and free speech are required. This presentation will show how altering academia's mission to privilege another goal, such as social justice, violates individual academic freedom and abuses institutional academic freedom.

During this session, questions about Academic Freedom, Free Speech, and Inclusion in the classroom will be addressed.