Author : Michiel Horn
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 476 pages
File Size : 47,8 MB
Release : 1998-01-01
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780802007261
Covering issues from the resistance in universities to Darwinist thought, to the experience of women and ethnic minorities, to "economic" and "political correctness," from 1860 to the present.
Author : Joan Wallach Scott
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 134 pages
File Size : 11,2 MB
Release : 2019-01-22
Category : Education
ISBN : 0231548931
Academic freedom rests on a shared belief that the production of knowledge advances the common good. In an era of education budget cuts, wealthy donors intervening in university decisions, and right-wing groups threatening dissenters, scholars cannot expect that those in power will value their work. Can academic freedom survive in this environment—and must we rearticulate what academic freedom is in order to defend it? This book presents a series of essays by the renowned historian Joan Wallach Scott that explore the history and theory of free inquiry and its value today. Scott considers the contradictions in the concept of academic freedom. She examines the relationship between state power and higher education; the differences between the First Amendment right of free speech and the guarantee of academic freedom; and, in response to recent campus controversies, the politics of civility. The book concludes with an interview conducted by Bill Moyers in which Scott discusses the personal experiences that have informed her views. Academic freedom is an aspiration, Scott holds: its implementation always falls short of its promise, but it is essential as an ideal of ethical practice. Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom is both a nuanced reflection on the tensions within a cherished concept and a strong defense of the importance of critical scholarship to safeguard democracy against the anti-intellectualism of figures from Joseph McCarthy to Donald Trump.
Author : Joanna Williams
Publisher : Springer
Page : 219 pages
File Size : 18,99 MB
Release : 2016-01-05
Category : Education
ISBN : 1137514795
Academic freedom is increasingly being threatened by a stifling culture of conformity in higher education that is restricting individual academics, the freedom of academic thought and the progress of knowledge – the very foundations upon which academia and universities are built. Once, scholars demanded academic freedom to critique existing knowledge and to pursue new truths. Today, while fondness for the rhetoric of academic freedom remains, it is increasingly criticised as an outdated and elitist concept by students and lecturers alike and called into question by a number of political and intellectual trends such as feminism, critical theory and identity politics. This provocative and compelling book traces the demise of academic freedom within the context of changing ideas about the purpose of the university and the nature of knowledge. The book argues that a challenge to this culture of conformity and censorship and a defence of academic free speech are needed for critique to be possible and for the intellectual project of evaluating existing knowledge and proposing new knowledge to be meaningful. This book is that challenge and a passionate call to arms for the power of academic thought today.
Author : Akeel Bilgrami
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 449 pages
File Size : 31,51 MB
Release : 2015-02-10
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0231538790
In these seventeen essays, distinguished senior scholars discuss the conceptual issues surrounding the idea of freedom of inquiry and scrutinize a variety of obstacles to such inquiry that they have encountered in their personal and professional experience. Their discussion of threats to freedom traverses a wide disciplinary and institutional, political and economic range covering specific restrictions linked to speech codes, the interests of donors, institutional review board licensing, political pressure groups, and government policy, as well as phenomena of high generality, such as intellectual orthodoxy, in which coercion is barely visible and often self-imposed. As the editors say in their introduction: "No freedom can be taken for granted, even in the most well-functioning of formal democracies. Exposing the tendencies that undermine freedom of inquiry and their hidden sources and widespread implications is in itself an exercise in and for democracy."
Author : Charles J. Sykes
Publisher : Regnery Publishing
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 42,42 MB
Release : 1988-10-01
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780895265593
ProfScam reveals the direct and ultimate reason for the collapse of higher education in the Unites States— the selfish, wayward, and corrupt American university professor.
Author : Walter P. Metzger
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 49,22 MB
Release : 1961
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780231085120
Author : Matthew W. Finkin
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 43,86 MB
Release : 2009-04-21
Category : Education
ISBN : 0300155549
This book offers a concise explanation of the history and meaning of American academic freedom, and it attempts to intervene in contemporary debates by clarifying the fundamental functions and purposes of academic freedom in America.--From publisher description.
Author : Jon Thompson
Publisher : James Lorimer & Company
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 10,73 MB
Release : 2012-06-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1552776573
During 2008-2009, Israel lobby organizations made concerted efforts to block a planned conference on statehood for Israel and Palestine at Toronto's York University. This book is a report of an independent investigation by author Jon Thompson for the Canadian Association of University Teachers, an organization that has been active in the defence of free speech and academic freedoms which have been challenged on Canadian campuses. Controversy began at York soon after the Israel-Palestine conference was advertised, and intensified over the following months. The event was repeatedly denounced, and university administrators were deluged by irate e-mails and phone calls. York, as the host university, was warned of boycotts and the cessation of donations and was denounced in fullpage newspaper ads. When York and its co-sponsors stood their ground, the Israel lobby persuaded the Harper government to contact SSHRC, an academic funding agency also involved with the event. In response, SSHRC made an unprecedented intervention. The Canadian Association of University Teachers then made a public issue of the government's interference and, in the end, the conference was held as planned. This book establishes the facts of the case, provides a context for understanding it, and explores the meaning of academic freedom in Canada. Author Jon Thompson proposes measures which universities and university faculty members can take to better safeguard their ability to discuss and debate ideas which some may wish to silence.
Author : Robert C. Post
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 50,38 MB
Release : 2012-01-24
Category : Law
ISBN : 0300148631
A leading American legal scholar offers a surprising account of the incompleteness of prevailing theories of freedom of speech. Robert C. Post shows that the familiar understanding of the First Amendment, which stresses the “marketplace of ideas” and which holds that "everyone is entitled to an opinion," is inadequate to create and preserve the expert knowledge that is necessary for a modern democracy to thrive. For a modern society reliably to answer such questions as whether nicotine causes cancer, the free and open exchange of ideas must be complemented by standards of scientific competence and practice that are both hierarchical and judgmental. Post develops a theory of First Amendment rights that seeks to explain both the need for the free formation of public opinion and the need for the distribution and creation of expertise. Along the way he offers a new and useful account of constitutional doctrines of academic freedom. These doctrines depend both upon free expression and the necessity of the kinds of professional judgment that universities exercise when they grant or deny tenure, or that professional journals exercise when they accept or reject submissions.
Author : Carolyn Evans
Publisher : Black Inc.
Page : 195 pages
File Size : 16,51 MB
Release : 2021-03-02
Category : Law
ISBN : 1743821506
Recently the alarm has been raised – basic freedoms are under attack in our universities. A generation of ‘snowflake’ students are shutting out ideas that challenge their views. Ideologically motivated academics are promoting propaganda at the expense of rigorous research and balanced teaching. Universities are caving in and denying platforms to ‘problematic’ public speakers. Is this true, or is it panic and exaggeration? Carolyn Evans and Adrienne Stone deftly investigate the arguments, analysing recent controversies and delving into the history of the university. They consider the academy’s core values and purpose, why it has historically given higher protection to certain freedoms, and how competing legal, ethical and practical claims can restrict free expression. This book asks the necessary questions and responds with thoughtful, reasoned answers. Are universities responsible for helping students to thrive in a free intellectual climate? Are public figures who work outside of academia owed an audience? Does a special duty of care exist for students and faculty targeted by hostile speech? And are high-profile cases diverting attention from more complex, serious threats to freedom in universities – such as those posed by domestic and foreign governments, industry partners and donors?
