Academic Freedom

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Academic Freedom

Edited by Jennifer Lackey

Engaging Philosophy

A cutting-edge topic of academic and popular interest
Original essays advance the discussion of current and widely debated issues such as microaggressions and safe spaces
Dicusses the rationale of academic freedom, its parameters, and the latest challenges to academic freedom
One of the launch volumes of the series Engaging Philosophy: a new forum for collective philosophical engagement with controversial issues in contemporary society

Academic Freedom

Edited by Jennifer Lackey

Academic freedom allows members of institutions of higher learning to engage in intellectual pursuits without fear of censorship or retaliation, and lies at the heart of the mission of the university. Recent years have seen growing concerns about threats to academic freedom, many brought about from the changing norms of (and demands on) the university. A wide range of new issues - including content warnings, safe spaces, social media controversies, microaggressions, and no platforming - have given rise to loud cries, in both scholarly and popular contexts, that academic freedom is under serious attack. This volume fills both of these gaps in the current literature by bringing together leading philosophers from a wide range of areas of expertise to weigh in on both traditional issues and timely challenges that involve academic freedom. Divided into four main sections, it covers the rationale of academic freedom, its parameters, the new challenges to academic freedom (ranging from content warnings to political correctness), and the conflicts between academic freedom and the enforcement of laws and regulations governing the university.

Academic Freedom

Edited by Jennifer Lackey

Engaging Philosophy

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction
1. Academic Freedom, Jennifer Lackey
Part II: The Rationale for Academic Freedom
2. Academic Freedom and the Politics of Truth, Michael P. Lynch
3. Is There a Safe Space for Academic Freedom? Michele Moody-Adams, Michele Moody-Adams
4. Two Concepts of Free Speech, Philip Pettit
Part III: The Parameters of Academic Freedom
5. Realpolitik of Academic Freedom: The Steven Salaita Case, John Protevi
6. Freedom of Research Area, Brian Weatherson
Part IV: Silencing and Beyond: Microaggressions, Content Warnings, and Political Correctness
7. Beyond Just Silencing: A Call for Complexity in Discussions of Academic Free Speech, Jennifer Saul
8. On Political Correctness, Microaggressions, and Silencing in the Academy, Mary Kate McGowan
Part V: Protests, Civil Disobedience, and No Platforming
9. When Protest and Speech Collide, David Estlund
10. Civil Disobedience and Free Speech in the Academy, Martha C. Nussbaum
11. No Platforming, Robert Mark Simpson and Amia Srinivasan

Academic Freedom

Edited by Jennifer Lackey

Engaging Philosophy

Author Information

Jennifer Lackey, Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University

Jennifer Lackey is the Wayne and Elizabeth Jones Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Northwestern University. She is the author of Learning from Words: Testimony as a Source of Knowledge (OUP 2010), the editor of Essays in Collective Epistemology (OUP 2014), and a co-editor of The Epistemology of Disagreement: New Essays (OUP 2013) and The Epistemology of Testimony (OUP 2006). Jennifer is the winner of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution (2015) and the Young Epistemologist Prize (2005). Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.

Contributors:

David Estlund, Brown University
Jennifer Lackey, Northwestern University
Michael P. Lynch, University of Connecticut
Mary Kate McGowan, Wellesley College
Michele Moody-Adams, Columbia University
Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago
Philip Pettit, Princeton University
John Protevi, Louisiana State University
Jennifer Saul, University of Sheffield
Robert Mark Simpson, University College London
Amia Srinivasan, University College London/University of Oxford
Brian Weatherson, University of Michigan