Defending Academic Freedom: Learning to Resist

The 9th episode of our special series “Academic Freedom on the Line” is a conversation among 4 authors who contributed to the recently published University Keywords, a volume on how universities operate as social and economic engines that shape society beyond their traditional educational roles. Andy Hines, the volume editor,  Senior Associate Director of the Aydelotte Foundation at Swarthmore College, and author of Outside Literary Studies: Black Criticism and the University; Jennifer Ruth, professor in the School of Film at Portland State University, and co-director of The Palestine Exception, who serves on the steering committee of Coalition for Action in Higher Education; and Ellen Schrecker, renowned historian of McCarthyism and US higher education, and most recently the co-editor of The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom with Jennifer Ruth and Valerie C. Johnson; and interviewer Vineeta Singh, a fellow at the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. 

We share this conversation with you in the hopes that it helps you leverage your curiosity, drive for knowledge, and research skills in the service of creating more just universities and more just societies. 

Links to resources mentioned in our conversation: 

To read/watch with your study group:
University Keywords
The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom
No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities
Vietnam: history, documents, and opinions on a major world crisis
Palestine Exception (documentary)

To connect with other academic workers:
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Starting an AAUP Chapter, Step By Step
Upcoming AAUP events and trainings
Coalition for Action in Higher Education  or email CAHE at DayofAction @ proton.me