Is Academic Freedom Becoming More Restricted?

[Satchmo Distel]

I started teaching in the US in 2012. I feel like my freedom of speech is more restricted now than it was then, mainly because Republican students are now more primed to give micro-attention to signs of 'anti-American' bias. As I am an adjunct without a prayer of ever getting tenure, this threat feels real to me, especially if student intake becomes more right-wing and social media campaigns more orchestrated. This means that I am self-censoring a lot more, which is not necessarily always bad (eliminating political asides that are not directly relevant to the topic being taught) but would become destructive if it interrupts the flow of a lesson.

The other issue is greater caution about using a particular source due to fear of "triggering" somebody. Again that's not always bad (if it leads to more judicious source selection) but could become so.

[Nefertiti2]

Undoubtedly

The government "Prevent" Strategy as interpreted by the University of Reading made students register before reading an article by Norman Geras one of the signatures of the "Euston manifesto" perhaps the closest thing that the Centre left has had to a written position and which also involved such radical figures as Nick Cohen and Gisela Stuart.

[ursus arctos]

My sense is that your experience is very common (especially in "red" states) and that it tends to be under-reported even within the Academy, in part because of the continuing focus of attention on "elite" institutions to the exclusion of the types of places that award the vast majority of degrees in this country.

But then non-tenured faculty are subject to a panoply of indignities that are completely out of keeping with the popular image of the college professor (as I don't have to tell you). University teaching increasingly resembles being an airline pilot, as a handful of fortunates at the very top of the profession still benefit from traditional prestige and perquisites, while the large majority of the profession ekes out a very precarious existence.

[Incandenza]

Also, only certain types of censorship in American universities get widespread media attention. Everyone knows the stories about "PC gone mad," etc., and conservatives speakers being uninvited, but there is little coverage of pro-Palestinian speakers being harassed and threatened and the no-platforming of any sort of voices who oppose the Israeli government, most often directed by many of the same people who lament a supposed lack of freedom of speech for conservative voices (looking at you, Bari Weiss).

[adams house cat]

Another aspect of this is that if you tell people that you don't do politics, as I do, largely to avoid argument, then you are treated with suspicion anyway.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think Howard Zinn is purged from some syllabi now due to external pressures. I tend to focus on microsociology and Durkheim so as not to be seen as class-obsessed, even though my own training was Marx and Weber. I don't mind too much because I love micro and Durkheim very deeply and know how to connect to students through them, but having to soft-pedal Marx means I am going against my roots to a large extent. I'm not a Marxist as such but he's in my bones and I ought to be able to call myself a Marxist if I am convinced he is rigorous and holds up well against the alternatives.

[Flynnie]

Also, only certain types of censorship in American universities get widespread media attention. Everyone knows the stories about "PC gone mad," etc., and conservatives speakers being uninvited, but there is little coverage of pro-Palestinian speakers being harassed and threatened and the no-platforming of any sort of voices who oppose the Israeli government, most often directed by many of the same people who lament a supposed lack of freedom of speech for conservative voices (looking at you, Bari Weiss).

At least we won't be hearing from Ms. Stavros Halkias much for the next few months, since she's been shipped to Australia by the Times like Nermal to Abu Dhabi.