Center Events

Upcoming Events

Academic Freedom School: Defending Academic Freedom in Florida; webinar series

This webinar series is designed to create an ongoing conversation about the threats to academic freedom experienced by faculty in Florida’s public college and university system. This four-part series will focus on a different aspect of how state legislation and other political interference has undermined academic freedom and think about how faculty can push back against these attacks.

This series is co-sponsored by UFF, an affiliate of AFT, and the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.

Chilling Extramural Speech in Florida: Legislation, Faculty and Student Intimidation, and Campus Restrictions

Wednesday, February 5, 7:00–8:30 p.m. ET
Register here.

The proliferation of bills targeting higher education has had the cumulative effect of chilling campus speech. This takes place inside as well as outside the classroom. This panel talks about how faculty experience intimidation, how campuses have interpreted legislation in ways that amplify this chilling effect, and campus restrictions on protest and speech that have been adopted. This panel looks specifically at how these attacks on speech have been experienced specifically by faculty speaking out concerning the Palestine/Gaza conflict.

Panelists:

• Tariq Habash, former policy advisor at the US Department of Education, fellow at Open Society Foundation Leadership in Government, and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom
• Bryn Taylor, PhD candidate and former co-president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida

Moderated by: Eli Meyerhoff, visiting scholar and program coordinator at Duke University's John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom

Past Events

Academic Freedom School Panel #3: "Countries of Concern": Impacts on Florida Universities and Strategies for Faculty

Wednesday, December 4, Zoom

Florida universities, such as Florida International University, have been forced to end partnerships with Chinese universities. FIU is ending several such partnerships as a result of legislation that regulates an institution’s relationship with “countries of concern.” This panel examines the origins of this legislation, the effect it is having on existing academic partnerships, and what Florida’s faculty members can do to navigate these regulations.

Panelists:

• Racqueal Legerwood, fellow in China Research and Advocacy at Amnesty International, USA
• Meera Sitharam, professor of computer science and affiliate professor of mathematics at University of Florida
• Yuxuan Wang, professor of physics at University of Florida

Moderated by: Eve Darian-Smith, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Studies & International Studies at the University of California, Irvine and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom

A recording of the event is available here.

Responding to Campaigns of Intimidation and Harassment, webinar

Wednesday, November 4, Zoom

Faculty increasingly face the threat of organized campaigns of intimidation and harassment aimed at their research and teaching. This disconcerting trend has included everything from a wave of complaints about classroom topics manufactured by partisan operatives to Freedom of Information (FOI) fishing expeditions, manufactured plagiarism accusations, weaponized campus complaint processes, and other efforts designed to discredit faculty teaching and research. The webinar provides an understanding of these evolving threats while also providing concrete ways that teachers and researchers across higher education institutions can proactively respond.

Panelists:

• Jo Boaler, the Nomellini and Olivier Professor of education, mathematics, in the graduate school of education at Stanford University).
• Sachin S. Pandya, professor of law at the University of Connecticut
• Rebekah Tromble, director, Institute for Data Democracy & Politics and professor, School of Media & Public Affairs and at the George Washington University

Moderated by: Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of political science at Trinity College, CT

Academic Freedom School Panel #2: Political Interference on Florida's Higher Ed Curriculum and How to Push Back

Wednesday, November 13, Zoom

A number of recent bills have been introduced in Florida that seek to shape the curriculum. Examples range from the “Stop WOKE” Act (HB 7), the delisting of “Principles of Sociology” as part of the core curriculum, and calls by Republican politicians to review university curricula to identify antisemitism. This session examines the intersecting laws that seek to shape what can and can’t be taught in the college classroom, what rights faculty actually do have, and how the academic freedom to determine what can be taught in the classroom can be better protected.

Panelists:

• Robert Gallagher, professor of sociology and human services and human services program manager at Broward College
• Darlene Mosley, professor of psychology at Pensacola State College and executive board member of PSCFA
• Katie Rainwater, professor of Global and Sociocultural Studies at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University and membership chair of UFF-FIU
• Martha Schoolman, professor and director of the MA in English at Florida International University and UFF-FIU chapter council member

Moderated by: Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of political science at Trinity College, CT

Academic Freedom School Panel #1: Post-Tenure Review in Florida: Can Collective Bargaining Protect Academic Freedom? 

Wednesday, October 16, Zoom

Passed in 2022, SB 7044 required the Board of Governors to institute a post-tenure review policy. The policy adopted by the Board of Governors in 2023—Regulation 10.003—locates the review of faculty primarily with the administration. This panel examines the AAUP policies on tenure and post-tenure review, examines how Florida policy violates these protections of academic freedom, and the effect these policies are having on faculty in Florida. The panel also looks at how collective bargaining agreements and institutions of shared governance might be used to better protect faculty from dismissal.

Panelists:

• Jennifer Proffitt, Theodore Clevenger Professor of Communication at Florida State University and co-chief negotiator of the most recent FSU contract
• Risa Lieberwitz, former general counsel of the AAUP and professor of labor and employment law at Cornell University

Moderated by Tim Cain (professor of higher education at the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom).

A recording of the event is available here.

Understanding the Evolving Threats to Academic Freedom: A Panel Discussion

Friday, September 13, 2024, 4:15–6:30 pm. ET
McCook Auditorium, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, hybrid event

Reflecting on Manufacturing Backlash, a report from the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, this discussion focused on current threats facing academic freedom, including the legislative assault in states such as Florida and Texas, the influence of activist donors on the integrity of teaching and research, the impact of anti-Black racism, and the antidemocratic threats stemming from fundamentalist approaches to free speech on campus.

Panelists:

• Sumi Cho, director of strategic initiatives at the African American Policy Forum
• Mary Anne Franks, Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School
• Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University
• Barrett Taylor, professor and coordinator of the higher education program at the University of North Texas

Moderated by Afshan Jafar, May Buckley Sadowski ‘19 Professor of Sociology at Connecticut College and President of the Connecticut State Conference of the AAUP.

A recording of the event is available here. 

Manufacturing Backlash: Discussing Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Legislative Attack on Higher Ed

Thursday, May 20, 2024, webinar

Today, higher education is under attack. During the 2021, 2022, and 2023 legislative cycles alone more than one hundred and fifty bills were introduced in state legislatures seeking to actively undermine academic freedom and university autonomy. These bills included ninety-nine academic gag orders seeking to ban the teaching of “critical race theory” (CRT) or other so-called “divisive concepts” as well as efforts to defund campus diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, weaken tenure and accreditation, and establish academic programs, centers, and whole schools designed to teach conservative content. Join us for an online discussion of a new white paper out from the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom—Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Legislative Attack on Higher Education, 2021–2023—which examines the well-funded political operatives and conservative think tanks behind this legislative attack on higher education.

Isaac Kamola, the white paper’s primary author, will begin by briefly presenting its topline findings. Then we’ll have a moderated discussion with Nancy MacLean, a scholar of dark money influence in American higher education, and Barrett Taylor, whose book Wrecked examines Republican efforts to transform education policy in the state legislatures. The event will be moderated by Karma Chávez, who has been actively involved in responding to legislative attacks on academic freedom in Texas.

Participants:

• Karma Chávez is chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is author and editor of several books including Palestine on the Air (University of Illinois Press, 2019).
• Isaac Kamola is the director of the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.
• Nancy MacLean is professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of several prize-winning books, most recently, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America.

A recording of the event is available here.