tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/academic-freedom-4161/articlesAcademic freedom – The Conversation2023-12-18T14:17:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199262023-12-18T14:17:03Z2023-12-18T14:17:03ZIsrael-Gaza war is having a chilling effect on academic freedom – podcast<p>Across parts of academia, concerns are mounting that the Israel-Gaza war is having a chilling effect on academic freedom. In the second of two episodes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> exploring how the war is affecting life at universities, we speak to an Israeli legal scholar, now based in the UK, about the pressures that academics and students are facing to rein in their views about the war. </p>
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<p>In the two months since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli war on Gaza, Neve Gordon is worried that there’s been a major clampdown on academic freedom in the US, Europe and Israel. </p>
<p>After teaching for 17 years in southern Israel, Gordon moved to the UK in 2016 and he’s now a professor of human rights and humanitarian law at Queen Mary University of London. His research looks at the laws of war with a special focus on Israel-Palestine, and on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13642987.2023.2281436">definitions of antisemitism</a>. </p>
<p>He’s also the vice-president at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and chair of its committee on academic freedom. In this role, he’s been following the impact of the conflict on free speech at universities, and recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYebFePm9sU">hosted an international webinar on the issue</a>. </p>
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<p>In the UK we’ve seen suspension of students and staff from their universities. We’ve seen cancelling of events … of student activities like protests and sit-ins. We’ve seen a few cases of students that were arrested. We’ve seen students whose visas are threatened to be revoked. </p>
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<p>In Israel, Gordon told us he was aware of 113 cases in Israel of students and staff who have been suspended or dismissed, and at least ten students who have been arrested for their criticism of Israel’s attack on Gaza. “We have several students sitting behind bars for Facebook or tweets that basically express empathy for the suffering of the Palestinians,” he says. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/american-universities-in-the-spotlight-over-reaction-to-israel-gaza-war-podcast-219769">American universities in the spotlight over reaction to Israel-Gaza war – podcast</a>
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<p>Meanwhile, in Germany, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/world/europe/germany-pro-palestinian-protests.html">many protests supporting Palestinian rights</a> have been banned and Gordon says colleagues in Germany have told him that “the situation is untenable”. </p>
<p>All this, Gordon says, is having a chilling effect across academia. </p>
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<p>I’m getting phone calls from friends in different universities in different countries saying that they want to cancel their Israel-Palestine course for next semester because they’re afraid that things that they will say in class can be interpreted by students as antisemitic. </p>
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<p>Listen to the full interview with Neve Gordon on <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, where you can also listen to the first of our two episodes on the way the Israel-Gaza war is affecting life at universities, focusing on what’s been happening at one <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-universities-in-the-spotlight-over-reaction-to-israel-gaza-war-podcast-219769">American public university</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3002/The_Conversation_Weekly_Israel-Gaza_war_on_campus_part_2_transcript.pdf?1704802585">transcript of this episode</a> is now available. </p>
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<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on X, formerly known as Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neve Gordon is vice president of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and the chair of its Committee on Academic Freedom. The Conversation UK receives support from UKRI. </span></em></p>The second of two episodes of The Conversation Weekly podcast exploring how the Israel-Gaza conflict is affecting life at universities.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197692023-12-14T10:44:07Z2023-12-14T10:44:07ZAmerican universities in the spotlight over reaction to Israel-Gaza war – podcast<p>Tensions have been running high at many universities around the world since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza. In the US, protests and solidarity events have been met with varied responses from university administrations. Some institutions are now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/17/nyregion/universities-antisemitic-anti-muslim-investigation.html">facing federal investigation</a> over incidents of alleged antisemitism and Islamophobia. </p>
<p>There’s been political fallout too: in early December, the president of the University of Pennsylvania <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/us/university-of-pennsylvania-president-resigns.html">stood down</a> after coming under pressure following her answers to a hearing in Congress about antisemitism on campus. </p>
<p>In the first of two episodes exploring how the war is affecting life at universities, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast hears about what’s been happening at one American public college campus. </p>
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<p>David Mednicoff says his department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, tends to have the students who are “the most directly involved in issues around the Middle East, from different perspectives.” Mednicoff is chair of the university’s Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies and an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies and public policy.</p>
<p>Speaking to <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> podcast about the reaction on campus to the Israel-Gaza war, he said he’s been working to find ways of bridging divides, including putting on events designed to provide background to the conflict. Mednicoff believes that students should be able to listen to perspectives that can challenge them, “sometimes even to the core of their identity”. </p>
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<p>It is reasonable for a Palestinian Arab to hear an Israeli-Jewish student share their sadness and fear in light of the October 7 massacres. It is reasonable for a pro-Israeli activist to appreciate that there’s a long history and even more important recent history of demeaning of Palestinian rights, particularly in the occupied territories.</p>
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<p>Mednicoff says the campus branch of Students for Justice for Palestine has been “louder than pro-Israel folks in terms of campus political discourse”. Pro-Palestinian protests, including a sit-in at a university administrative building <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/10/27/umass-amherst-protests-arrests">where 57 people were arrested</a>, have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. In a separate incident, a student was <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/11/05/umass-amherst-student-arrested-after-allegedly-punching-jewish-student-spitting-on-israeli-flag-the-disturbing-reality-for-jewish-students-on-campus/">arrested and charged</a> after allegedly attacking a Jewish student on campus. </p>
<h2>Role of a university</h2>
<p>Universities have come under fire from those – both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian – who think their leadership should take a stronger stance during the Israel-Gaza conflict. But Mednicoff thinks it isn’t the role of a university to do that. “In general, I think that it is ill advised for universities to take political positions on global issues,” he said. And because of the current climate for higher education, particularly in the US, he thinks it’s also a political choice for universities to try and foster well-informed, open debate.</p>
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<p>Universities, I think all over the world, but certainly in the United States are themselves under a good bit of attack, by outside groups who think that universities either should push a particular perspective or they shouldn’t be places where broad free speech is allowed if it goes against what they would conceive as particular guardrails.</p>
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<p>You can listen to the full interview with David Mednicoff on <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a>, plus an interview with Naomi Schalit, senior editor for politics and democracy at The Conversation in the US. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3001/The_Conversation_Weekly_Israel-Gaza_war_on_campus_part_1_transcript.pdf?1704802484">transcript of this episode</a> is now available. </p>
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<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware, and Mend Mariwany, with assistance from Katie Flood. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1QQ0_Zzvs&ab_channel=NBCNews">N</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EXgqQkLiDg&ab_channel=NBCNews">B</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1QQ0_Zzvs">C</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiLJPkHFkYI">News</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upWD8RX6LPk&t=27s&ab_channel=CBSEveningNews">CBS News</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on X, formerly known as Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Mednicoff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The first of two episodes of The Conversation Weekly podcast exploring how the Israel-Gaza war is affecting life at universities.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168122023-12-13T23:09:55Z2023-12-13T23:09:55ZCanadian scientists are still being muzzled, and that risks undermining climate policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565586/original/file-20231213-31-mk3dtu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C76%2C2947%2C1917&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Interference in research has serious consequences for scientists and for the laws and policies their research informs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canadian-scientists-are-still-being-muzzled-and-that-risks-undermining-climate-policy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Environmental scientists in Canada continue to be stifled in their ability to conduct and communicate their research. Interference in science, also referred to as “<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/canada-and-the-war-on-science/2016985.article">muzzling</a>,” was a well-documented concern during the Conservative government of the early 2010’s, when it gripped the collective consciousness of Canadian federal public sector scientists. Our research sheds light on a broader understanding of the recent interference in environmental sciences in Canada.</p>
<p>Interference is used to describe intentional and unfair constraints on scientists that restrict their ability to conduct and communicate their work. Examples of interference include restrictions on ability to communicate work to the public or colleagues (muzzling), workplace harassment, and undue modifications made to findings that alter the data or its interpretation.</p>
<p>Interference has serious consequences. It causes issues with researchers’ mental health and career satisfaction as well as limits the ability of taxpayer-funded research to be shared with the public.</p>
<p>Even more seriously, interference can lead to downplaying environmental risks or a lack of good information to support decision-making and policies about resource extraction and the environment.</p>
<h2>Study shows interference is ongoing in Canada</h2>
<p>We recently surveyed <a href="https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/full/10.1139/facets-2023-0005">741 environmental researchers across Canada</a> in two separate <a href="https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/full/10.1139/facets-2023-0006">studies into interference</a>. We circulated our survey through scientific societies related to environmental fields, as well as directly emailing Canadian authors of peer-reviewed research in environmental disciplines. </p>
<p>Researchers were asked (1) if they believed they had experienced interference in their work, (2) the sources and types of this interference, and (3) the subsequent effects on their career satisfaction and well-being. </p>
<p>We also asked demographic information to understand whether researchers’ perceptions of interference differed by career stage, research area or identity. </p>
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<span class="caption">Interference can lead to downplaying environmental risks or a lack of good information to support decision-making.</span>
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<p>Although overall ability to communicate is improving, interference is a pervasive issue in Canada, including from government, private industry and academia. We found 92 per cent of the environmental researchers reported having experienced interference with their ability to communicate or conduct their research in some form. </p>
<p>Interference also manifested in different ways and already-marginalized researchers experienced worse outcomes.</p>
<h2>History of interference in Canada</h2>
<p>Under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, first-hand reports of muzzling by federal government scientists were common. These frustrations eventually boiled over in 2013 when hundreds of scientists took to the streets in lab coats to protest the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/01/canada-war-on-science/514322/">“war on science.”</a></p>
<p>These claims were later backed in a <a href="https://pipsc.ca/sites/default/files/comms/Defrosting-report-e_v4%202_1.pdf">survey by the Professional Institute of the Public Service (PIPSC)</a>. Their 2013 survey of federal scientists found that 90 per cent of respondents felt restricted in their ability to conduct and communicate research, and 70 per cent reported political interference.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Liberals, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were elected on promises to lift restrictions and implement a <a href="https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/office-chief-science-advisor/model-policy-scientific-integrity">Model Policy on Scientific Integrity</a>. Versions of this policy were adopted in 2019 across all federal scientific departments.</p>
<p>In 2016, PIPSC conducted a follow up survey. They found that although accounts of muzzling had decreased, 50 per cent of respondents still felt restricted in their ability to conduct and communicate work, and 40 per cent experienced ongoing political interference.</p>
<h2>Interference in science today</h2>
<p>Though informative, the PIPSC survey was limited in scope: they only focused on federal government scientists and didn’t investigate all sources of interference, or which subgroups of scientists were most vulnerable. Our research addressed these gaps and investigated the impact of the scientific integrity policies.</p>
<p>In our survey, respondents indicated that, overall, their ability to communicate with the public has improved in the recent years. Of the respondents aware of the government’s scientific integrity policies, roughly half of them attribute positive changes to them. </p>
<p>Others argued that the 2015 change in government had the biggest influence. In the first few months of their tenure, the Liberal government created a new cabinet position, the Minister of Science (this position was absorbed into the role of Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry in 2019), and appointed a <a href="https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/office-chief-science-advisor/model-policy-scientific-integrity">chief science advisor</a> among other changes. </p>
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<span class="caption">Many respondents said they limited communication with the public and policymakers to avoid negative backlash or impacts on their careers.</span>
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<p>Though the ability to communicate has generally improved, many of the researchers argued interference still goes on in subtler ways. These included undue restriction on what kind of environmental research they can do, and funding to pursue them. Many respondents attributed those restrictions to the influence of private industry. </p>
<p>Respondents identified the major sources of external interference as management, workplace policies, and external research partners. The chief motivations for interference, as the scientists saw it, included downplaying environmental risks, justifying an organization’s current position on an issue and avoiding contention.</p>
<p>Our most surprising finding was almost half of respondents said they limited their communications with the public and policymakers due to fears of negative backlash and reduced career opportunities.</p>
<p>In addition, interference had not been experienced equally. Early career and marginalized scientists — including those who identify as women, racialized, living with a disability and 2SLGBTQI+ — reported facing significantly more interference than their counterparts.</p>
<p>Scientists studying climate change, pollution, environmental impacted assessments and threatened species were also more likely to experience interference with their work than scientists in other disciplines.</p>
<h2>The consequences for Canadians and our environment</h2>
<p>Environmental policy is only as good as the evidence it is based on. In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop28-the-scientific-basis-for-a-rapid-fossil-fuel-phase-out-219382">current climate crisis</a>, effective environmental policy has never been more important. If scientists cannot freely conduct and communicate their work, the gap between evidence and policy widens, and that means Canada gets less effective laws and policies. </p>
<p>Environmental scientists are doing essential work. They are informing and equipping us to fight against the climate crisis, <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-we-fight-to-protect-species-on-the-brink-of-extinction-lets-not-forget-the-familiar-ones-199307">prevent extinction of species</a> and solve the multitude of environmental challenges we face. If scientists are unable to effectively communicate with the public, democratic decision-making, that depends on informed voters, could be compromised as well. </p>
<p>All institutions employing scientists must take active steps to protect them from interference. This can be done by implementing and upholding scientific integrity policies, similar to those of the federal government, and creating better supports for early career researchers and those from marginalized backgrounds. </p>
<p>From the public and the news media, we should demand that scientists’ voices and knowledge have a secure place in public discourse, while also protecting them from online harassment and backlash. We are grateful to have been able to undertake and share our research without interference. We hope that changes can be made so that scientists, in all sectors and all institutions, share this privilege.</p>
<p><em>Nada Salem from Evidence for Democracy also co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alana Westwood received funding to support this work from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manjulika E. Robertson received funding from the Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha M. Chu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If scientists cannot freely conduct and communicate their work, the gap between evidence and policy widens, and that means Canada gets less effective laws and policies.Alana Westwood, Assistant Professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie UniversityManjulika E. Robertson, Research Associate, Westwood Lab, Dalhousie UniversitySamantha M. Chu, Master of Environmental Studies Student, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166812023-11-08T20:16:39Z2023-11-08T20:16:39ZCampus tensions and the Mideast crisis: Will Ontario and Alberta’s ‘Chicago Principles’ on university free expression stand?<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/campus-tensions-and-the-mideast-crisis-will-ontario-and-albertas-chicago-principles-on-university-free-expression-stand" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Our tolerance for expression that we value often exceeds our tolerance for expression we find distasteful. Nonetheless, if there’s a place in society where the high ground on free expression should be consistently held, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/267/monograph/book/64763">surely it’s on university campuses</a>.</p>
<p>While universities are expected to foster robust debate on a range of contentious and controversial issues, finding the right balance between free expression and protection from harm is no easy task. </p>
<p>University campuses across Canada and <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/education-news/2023-10-18/colleges-struggle-to-balance-free-speech-and-student-safety-amid-israel-hamas-protests">the United States have been</a> consumed by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-palestinians-war-mood-0cebcbcf0550ee08c0d757334f69851d">the war between Hamas and Israel</a>, and there have been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/campus-free-expression-israel-hamas-1.7010284">concerning incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia</a>. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents have left Canadians <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-antisemitism-gaza-islamophobia-1.7022244">“scared in our own streets.”</a></p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-canada-must-act-to-prevent-hate-crimes-against-muslim-and-jewish-communities-216416">Israel-Hamas war: Canada must act to prevent hate crimes against Muslim and Jewish communities</a>
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<p>In Ontario and in Alberta, university decision-making will be an important test of recent <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/january-2020/the-complexity-of-protecting-free-speech-on-campus">university policy shifts pertaining to free expression</a>.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/defending-space-for-free-discussion-empathy-and-tolerance-on-campus-is-a-challenge-during-israel-hamas-war-216858">Defending space for free discussion, empathy and tolerance on campus is a challenge during Israel-Hamas war</a>
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<h2>Conservative campaign promises</h2>
<p>When majority Conservative governments came <a href="https://cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2021/03/free-expression-campus-assessing-alberta-ministerial-directive">to power in Ontario in 2018 and Alberta in 2019</a>, they <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-doug-ford-says-ontario-postsecondary-schools-will-require-free-speech/#">quickly implemented campaign promises</a> to compel post-secondary institutions to create or update their free expression policies. </p>
<p>These policy shifts arose in response to the perception of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2021.1999762">a “crisis” of free expression at universities that has gained momentum</a> over the past decade.</p>
<p>They also followed high-profile expressive controversies on campus —
like <a href="https://thevarsity.ca/2016/10/24/u-of-t-letter-asks-jordan-peterson-to-respect-pronouns-stop-making-statements">the Jordan Peterson</a> and <a href="https://macleans.ca/lindsay-shepherd-wilfrid-laurier/">Lindsay Shepherd affairs</a> in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Provincial policies were intended to address what some conservatives believe is an inhospitable environment for them on campus. </p>
<p>Alberta touted its comparatively collaborative approach, and Ontario <a href="https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3800&context=scholarly_works">explicitly threatened funding cuts for non-compliance</a>. </p>
<p>Ontario reported <a href="https://heqco.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/HEQCO-2019-Free-Speech-Report-to-Government-REVISED-3.pdf">every public college and university complied</a>, and Alberta reported every institution obliged with <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9458130/alberta-government-free-speech-post-secondary-schools/">the exception of one university (Burman University)</a> for religious reasons.</p>
<h2>‘Chicago Principles’ and free expression</h2>
<p>Alberta instructed post-secondary institutions <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/free-speech-demetrios-nicolaides-ucp-university-lethbridge-1.6735905">to endorse</a> “<a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/advanced-education-minister-promises-chicago-principles-details-coming-soon-as-students-academics-concerned-for-september-deadline">the Chicago Principles</a>,” a policy template with <a href="https://freeexpression.uchicago.edu">origins at the University of Chicago</a>, and Ontario told <a href="https://macleans.ca/education/will-new-rules-around-free-speech-on-campus-wind-up-silencing-protestors">post-secondary institutions to consult the Chicago Principles in creating or updating now-required policies</a>.</p>
<p>Key pillars of the Chicago Principles are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It’s up to the university community — not the administration — to make judgments about the merits of campus expression. </p></li>
<li><p>The proper response to problematic expression is argument rather than censorship. In the words of the report that spawned these principles: “The university’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth <a href="https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/reports/FOECommitteeReport.pdf">are thought by some or even by most members of the university community to be offensive, unwise, immoral or wrong-headed</a>.” </p></li>
<li><p>Universities ought not “shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable or even deeply offensive.” </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Widest possible latitude for expression</h2>
<p>While the Chicago Principles emphasize civility and collegiality, they also argue the absence of these values ought not be invoked as a justification for expressive restrictions, even in the context of “offensive or disagreeable” expression. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-you-be-civil-to-a-racist-yes-but-you-should-still-call-them-out-142703">Should you be civil to a racist? Yes, but you should still call them out</a>
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<p>The principles envision the widest latitude possible for campus expression, subject only to narrow time, place and manner restrictions (to ensure the proper functioning of the university) and any applicable legal prohibitions (that is, <a href="https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201825E#a3.4">criminal hate speech and anti-discrimination legislation</a>). </p>
<p>The Chicago Principles are relatively uncontroversial for an academic environment, even if they reflect <a href="https://campusfreespeechguide.pen.org/the-law/the-basics">American laws that are much more tolerant of harmful expression</a>.</p>
<p>But applying them to a Canadian context is easier said than done. Although institutional policies now reflect them in some form, there is still some variability between them. Furthermore, most expression that sparks campus controversy exists in a grey area between the controversial and the potentially discriminatory. </p>
<h2>Challenges responding at universities</h2>
<p>Following Hamas’s attack <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-humanitarian-aid-hamas-attack-war-united-nations-a068d629255e803849ad5c78387380c8">on Israeli civilians and Israel’s siege of Gaza</a>, university administrations have issued statements <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9458130/alberta-government-free-speech-post-secondary-schools">condemning discriminatory forms of</a> expression and intimidation. </p>
<p>In response, some faculty and students have questioned administrations and are accusing them of bias and silencing dissent. </p>
<p>At York University, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/york-university-israel-hamas-statement-update-1.7004246#">the administration gave student unions an ultimatum</a> in response to an open letter that it says has been widely interpreted as a “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-head-of-york-student-union-wont-retract-statement-on-hamas-attack-says">justification for attacking civilians and a call to violence</a>.” </p>
<p>As a result of such controversies, the reasonable limits for expression are being redefined in real time. </p>
<h2>Disagreement on expressive harms</h2>
<p>Within academic communities, there is <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique/article/abs/expressive-freedom-on-campus-and-the-conceptual-elasticity-of-harm/6617A5755E9BAF0AC14077947D551819">intense disagreement</a> about which forms of expressive harms ought to result in expressive restrictions.</p>
<p>To complicate matters further, universities have significant discretion in their decision-making in the context of expressive restrictions. It’s subject to a deferential standard of “reasonableness” in administrative law, and Canada’s strongest protection for free expression — <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art2b.html#">Section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights</a> — scarcely applies at all. </p>
<h2>Legal remedies, questions of university mission</h2>
<p>Universities are faced with the dilemma of what to do about expression that may not be discriminatory as a point of law. </p>
<p>Universities can exercise their additional discretion and restrict expression if they believe it compromises their mission (facilitating an inhospitable environment) or rely solely upon the reasonable limits established by Canadian jurisprudence. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/free-speech-on-campus-means-universities-must-protect-the-dignity-of-all-students-124526">Free speech on campus means universities must protect the dignity of all students</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Each option has costs and benefits. In the context of polarizing issues, university decision-making will rarely satisfy everyone. </p>
<p>Given redoubled efforts to protect expression in Ontario and Alberta, universities arguably bear the burden of showing that any expression they restrict at least appears to cross a legal threshold. </p>
<h2>Conservatives embracing restrictions?</h2>
<p>However, the dilemma for some conservative politicians, parties and pundits who have insisted before now that free expression is imperilled on campus is more daunting. </p>
<p>Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government recently took the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/sarah-jama-censor-1.6997689#">extraordinary step of barring Sarah Jama, an NDP member of the Ontario legislature, from speaking in the legislature</a> in response to her criticisms of Israel. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sarah-jamas-censure-making-people-feel-uncomfortable-is-part-of-the-job-216704">Sarah Jama's censure: Making people feel uncomfortable is part of the job</a>
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<p>In response to campus reactions to the conflict in the Middle East, the <em>National Post</em> recently said “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/reaction-to-hamas-attack-on-campus-shows-canadian-universities-are-in-desperate-need-of-fixing">universities need to be fixed</a>,” including “reprimanding the most egregious professors.” </p>
<h2>Will calls for censorship grow?</h2>
<p>With no sign of campus unrest relenting, calls for censorship may grow. </p>
<p>In theory, compelling universities to conform <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/education-news/2023-10-18/colleges-struggle-to-balance-free-speech-and-student-safety-amid-israel-hamas-protests">to the Chicago Principles</a> means they bear a greater obligation to protect expression that is within the bounds of law. </p>
<p>But given the backlash and legitimate concern about discrimination and hate, how universities will navigate this fraught time is far from certain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216681/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dax D'Orazio receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is affiliated with the Centre for Constitutional Studies and Centre for Free Expression. </span></em></p>In Ontario and in Alberta, university decisions about balancing free expression and protection from harm will be an important test of recent university policy shifts pertaining to free expression.Dax D'Orazio, Peacock Postdoctoral Fellow in Pedagogy, Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2144942023-10-18T14:17:32Z2023-10-18T14:17:32ZColonialism shaped modern universities in Africa – how they can become truly African<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553975/original/file-20231016-25-h2hnpz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the roles of an African university is to produce critical and democratic thinkers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vieriu Adrian/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Colonialism profoundly shaped modern universities in Africa. It implanted institutions on African soil that were largely replicas of European universities rather than organically African.</p>
<p>For historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1474022215618513">one problem</a> of universities in Africa “is that they are ‘Westernised”. He describes them as “local institutions of a dominant academic model based on a Eurocentric epistemic canon that attributes truth only to the Western way of knowledge production”. This model, he says, “disregards other epistemic traditions”.</p>
<p>My research is mainly on universities, especially on issues of equity, inclusion and transformation. In a <a href="https://brill.com/display/book/9789004677432/BP000011.xml">recent chapter</a> I grapple with what universities need to do to stop being inappropriate replicas of European universities. How can they become, instead, African universities that address African needs?</p>
<p>I conclude that, to fulfil their key purposes of sharing and creating knowledge, they must play five associated roles. These are: encouraging students to be critical thinkers; undertaking more than just Eurocentric research; engaging proactively with the societies in which they are located; using their research and teaching to tackle development problems; and, finally, promoting critical and democratic citizenship.</p>
<p>In all these roles, African universities must take “place” – the geography, history, social relations, economics and politics of their respective contexts – seriously. They must overcome Eurocentric theories of knowledge and western institutional cultures. In doing so they must advance both decolonial thought and the public good.</p>
<p>But the African university cannot be created through changing the intellectual lens and basis alone. Political action is key.</p>
<h2>The importance of place</h2>
<p>African universities must be shaped by their contexts. Professor Louise Vincent of Rhodes University in South Africa rightly <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/postgraduategateway/news/latestnews/proposaltotheandrewwmellonfoundation.html">argues</a> that it “entails a deep engagement, both literally and theoretically, with the notion of ‘place’” for universities to find their purpose. Universities, she adds, are situated in “place”. </p>
<p>For Vincent, place is neither “objective nor neutral”. It is “inscribed with relations of power” and how “power works in and through places has to be confronted.”</p>
<p>This means that, rather than distancing themselves from the surrounding communities, universities need to, in Vincent’s words, “actively seek exposure and collaboration – because that is what they are ‘for’.” This has implications for universities’ functioning, roles and activities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toyin-falola-3-recent-books-that-explain-the-work-of-nigerias-famous-decolonial-scholar-200851">Toyin Falola: 3 recent books that explain the work of Nigeria's famous decolonial scholar</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>This notion of “place” sees knowledge as being context sensitive rather than decontextualised. Eurocentrics assume that the findings of research undertaken in Europe apply to countries and areas in Africa. This is not so. The continent’s universities must imaginatively theorise their own realities as a basis for changing them. </p>
<h2>Five roles</h2>
<p>African universities must play at least five key roles.</p>
<p>One is encouraging students, as anthropologist Arjun Appadurai <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1474022215618513">puts it</a>, to “develop their own intellectual and moral lives as independent individuals”. </p>
<p>A second role is to undertake different kinds of scholarship that serve different purposes, aims and objects. Scholarship must confront dominant Eurocentric knowledge systems and theories. African universities need to, in <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n14/mahmood-mamdani/the-african-university">the words</a> of postcolonial scholar Mahmood Mamdani,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>theorise our own reality, and strike the right balance between the local and the global as we do so. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Third, they must engage proactively with the societies in which they operate. This engagement must happen at the intellectual and cultural levels. It is a crucial part of universities’ ability to contribute to developing a critical citizenry.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-happens-when-you-put-african-philosophies-at-the-centre-of-learning-95465">What happens when you put African philosophies at the centre of learning</a>
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<p>A fourth role is actively engaging with the pressing development challenges. This is achieved through teaching and learning, research and community engagement. </p>
<p>Promoting critical and democratic citizenship is a fifth role. Africa requires not only capable professionals but also sensitive intellectuals and critical citizens. Universities must, in ethicist <a href="https://www.eur.nl/sites/corporate/files/nussbaum_text.pdf">Martha Nussbaum’s terms</a>, promote the “cultivation of humanity”.</p>
<h2>Making it happen</h2>
<p>The purposes and roles I’ve outlined here do not exhaust the meaning of an African university. Instead, they are its ideal core functions. </p>
<p>I also do not wish to imply that every purpose and role must be undertaken in identical ways by every university. There is no value in uniformity and homogeneity. It is essential that, within national systems, universities address different needs that span the local to the global.</p>
<p>But no matter their focus, African universities must, fundamentally, advance the “public good”. International higher education policy academic Mala Singh <a href="https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/aa/article/view/1433/1412">contends</a> that this is the “foundational narrative and platform” for universities to pursue a different path from their current dubious trajectories. </p>
<p>The state has a major role to play. It must ably steer and supervise – not interfere with – universities. It must resource them properly, and uphold academic freedom and institutional autonomy. It must also ensure a supportive macro-economic, social and financial policy environment.</p>
<p>The African university will be realised neither overnight nor without political struggles that involve diverse actors within and beyond universities. It will entail confronting complicity, opposition, inertia and apprehension. Collective and individual intellectual and practical political actions, as well as “<a href="https://intercontinentalcry.org/what-is-decolonization-and-why-does-it-matter/">everyday acts of resurgence</a>”, are required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saleem Badat receives funding from the Mellon Foundation and the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences. </span></em></p>The African university cannot be created through changing the intellectual lens and basis alone. Political action is key.Saleem Badat, Research Professor, UFS History Department, University of the Free StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2118112023-08-23T12:26:04Z2023-08-23T12:26:04ZHow a hip-hop mindset can help teachers in a time of turmoil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543937/original/file-20230822-19-fzf2o0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C20%2C6679%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Confidence is a critical component of hip-hop culture.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/confident-black-woman-in-classroom-royalty-free-image/1298999131?phrase=high+school+teacher+black+woman&adppopup=true">Manu Vega via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While hip-hop has created a lot of good memories, good music and good times, the culture has gifted society much more than just entertainment.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7BZ3GM8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researcher who specializes in hip-hop culture</a>, I know that one of hip-hop’s greatest gifts is a <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/the-hip-hop-mindset-9780807768709#:">certain mindset that focuses on freedom of thought, flexibility and truth-telling</a>. It also includes <a href="https://doi.org/10.25148/CLJ.16.1.010605">creativity, authenticity, confidence, braggadocio, uninhibited voice and integrity</a> as those things relate to one’s community and culture.</p>
<p>In order for educators to overcome the challenges of what politicians are turning into an <a href="https://theconversation.com/politicians-seek-to-control-classroom-discussions-about-slavery-in-the-us-187057">increasingly restrictive teaching environment</a> – particularly with regard to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-can-stay-true-to-history-without-breaking-new-laws-that-restrict-what-they-can-teach-about-racism-205452">matters of race and racism in American history</a> – I believe the hip-hop mindset has taken on a new sense of relevance in the educational arena.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/bans-on-critical-race-theory-could-have-a-chilling-effect-on-how-educators-teach-about-racism-163236">Many educators feel uncertainty</a> over what they can and can’t say in the classroom. They also want to stay true to themselves. Here, I offer five ways that educators can adopt the hip-hop mindset to confront the challenges they face:</p>
<h2>1. Claim your space</h2>
<p>When Run-DMC <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcCaycrPIa0">took the stage in the 1980s</a>, they often began their show with Run – one half of the pioneering rap duo – walking on stage and saying to an eager crowd: “We had a whole lot of superstars on this stage here tonight, but I want y'all to know one thing: This is my house. And when I say ‘Who’s house?’ I want y'all to say ‘Run’s house.’”</p>
<p>Through this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25377-6_2">call-and-response</a> routine, the group claimed every arena in which they performed. Whether you call it posturing, braggadocio or swag, hip-hop culture has long rewarded those who confidently took control of the spaces where they work.</p>
<p>Hip-hop’s longevity is due in large part to this boldness – artists standing firm and <a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/musc210-hhp/hip-hop-culture-politics-exploring-the-narrative-and-power-of-rap-lyrics/fuck-tha-police-n-w-a/">fighting back</a> <a href="https://www.villagevoice.com/when-christian-america-and-the-cops-went-insane-over-n-w-a-rap-and-metal/">even when they were under attack</a>.</p>
<p>Strong confidence gives artists the guts to be nonconformists, to tell the truth and to try something new – practices that I believe will benefit teachers in the midst of political efforts to control what they say.</p>
<h2>2. Form a squad or a crew</h2>
<p>From the early days to now, hip-hop artists have always formed
<a href="https://www.seoultherapy.co.uk/post/a-guide-to-k-hip-hop-crews#">squads or crews</a> to perform as emcees or dancers, who often battle to show who has the best lyrics or dance moves.</p>
<p>Early examples include the Rock Steady Crew and New York City Breakers, who famously squared off against one another in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xu48tnr4qQ">iconic scene</a> from the 1984 hip-hop movie “Beat Street.”</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-Xu48tnr4qQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Breakdancing battle scene from the movie “Beat Street.”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Your squad isn’t just your personal friends – they are your colleagues and comrades in the struggle. They are your trusted village of truth tellers, possibility partners and strategic thinkers. Educators can lean on their squad to help strategize and stay sane. </p>
<p>A squad or crew need not be confined to just one school. Queen Latifah, Monie Love, A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul – who were either solo acts or individual groups – were all part of an even larger artistic community called <a href="https://www.avclub.com/a-beginner-s-guide-to-hip-hop-collective-native-tongues-1798239179">Native Tongues</a>. </p>
<p>Just as hip-hop artists are often part of larger groups, educators can similarly build a larger community of support.</p>
<p>Partnering with local nonprofits and community organizations could prove important now more than ever. These organizations can host and facilitate learning experiences that might be prohibited in a classroom. Through these partnerships, students can get free, community-based programs that enable them to have freer discussions that might not be allowed within a public school in a state that restricts what educators can say.</p>
<h2>3. Remix</h2>
<p>One of the most popular strategies of creating hip-hop music is the remix – where a song’s producer will create a new version of a song, sometimes by borrowing or sampling beats from other songs, changing up the pace, or even introducing new lyrics that weren’t part of the original.</p>
<p>A classic example would be KRS-One’s 1988 song “Still #1.” Whereas the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_UMdFSSlo">original version</a> was laid back, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gZ6tLhUAHY&t=42s">“Numero Uno” remix</a> featured a sample of an upbeat Latin jazz song and even opened in Spanish.</p>
<p>Embracing the art of remixing might offer a viable way for educators to respond to efforts to censor what students can read in school or educators can teach in class.</p>
<p>For instance, in school districts or states where certain books or topics have been outlawed, educators can use <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/how-teenagers-can-borrow-banned-books-for-free-from-brooklyn-public-library/">Books Unbanned</a> – a program in which teens and young adults can access e-books using a national library card. Educators can create a free guide of resources for families that include information on similar programs.</p>
<p>A remix may also be helpful with school funding. Schools at all levels could <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2022/01/11/critical-race-theory-scholars-counter-funded-attacks">secure grant and foundational support</a>, which can provide the resources to fund community-based partnerships and the freedom to establish specialized initiatives.</p>
<h2>4. Go crate digging</h2>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-lost-art-of-cratedigging-4ed652643618">Crate digging</a> is a critical part of the remix. It is the process of sifting through old vinyl records, typically stored in old milk crates or cardboard boxes, to find a long-forgotten song to use in a remix.</p>
<p>Similarly, teachers can turn to the tactics and strategies employed by educators from different eras to see how they dealt with the educational exclusion and erasure of their day. After desegregation, for instance, a new struggle emerged in the 1960s and 1970s to make school lessons more <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2668212">culturally and racially inclusive</a>. </p>
<p>By examining the work of legendary educators like <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/how-teenagers-can-borrow-banned-books-for-free-from-brooklyn-public-library/">Septima Clark</a>, today’s teachers can uncover ideas and opportunities to re-imagine historical efforts like the <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/septima-clark/">Citizenship Schools</a> initiative that Clark developed. These mobile schools – or <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/septima-clark/">“rolling schools”</a> as they were called – took learning into community spaces. These schools paved the way for programs like the Freedom Schools that were later developed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, and are still in operation today by the <a href="https://www.childrensdefense.org/programs/cdf-freedom-schools/">Children’s Defense Fund</a>. Communities around the country partner with the Children’s Defense Fund to offer local Freedom Schools.</p>
<h2>5. Still keep it real</h2>
<p>As a teenage fan of hip-hop in the early 1990s, I remember the phrase “keep it real” – which is an expression of authenticity – as being <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/08/keeping-it-real-has-lost-its-true-meaning/">extremely popular</a>. At the time, it felt like intense pressure to keep it real and to represent your community. I now look back and appreciate that it actually wasn’t pressure, but rather permission to be authentic.</p>
<p>Educators don’t have to champion the new laws and policies that restrict what they can teach – they just have to follow them. But there’s no restriction against “keeping it real” and discussing the new laws and policies as a civics lesson.</p>
<p>So, when the lesson or class is about current events, students could examine various laws being enacted to restrict the teaching of Black history.</p>
<p>Educators may find themselves facing a growing number of challenges from state legislatures as they increasingly invade their classroom spaces and curtail the kind of content they can teach in class. I believe by adopting the hip-hop mindset, educators will be better prepared to do the kind of battle required to prevail on behalf of truth-telling, authenticity, creativity and all the other habits of mind that made hip-hop the defiant and resilient culture that it has become.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toby Jenkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The same boldness that enabled hip-hop to endure can benefit teachers in the classroom, a hip-hop scholar writes.Toby Jenkins, Professor of Higher Education, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065912023-05-30T20:08:23Z2023-05-30T20:08:23ZDoes the Fight Transphobia UniMelb campaign against a feminist philosopher violate academic freedom?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528954/original/file-20230530-18771-fnjtie.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3823%2C1978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anonymous posters such as this one have campaigned against philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith, author of the book Gender-Critical Feminism.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>A campaign by the activist group Fight Transphobia UniMelb against feminist philosopher <a href="https://hollylawford-smith.org/">Holly Lawford-Smith</a> <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/class-warfare-lecturer-targeted-by-trans-activists-over-rally-role-20230505-p5d5vr.html">escalated</a> recently. There have been calls to boycott her course on feminism at the University of Melbourne. Posters and stickers around the campus and its environs have declared “Our demands: Transphobes and Nazis off campus” and that: “Only a Fascist takes ‘Feminism’”. </p>
<p>In response, Lawford-Smith has lodged a formal complaint with WorkSafe Victoria. She accuses the university of failing to provide her with a safe work environment, and to uphold academic freedom.</p>
<p>Fight Transphobia UniMelb has <a href="https://fighttransphobiaunimelb.tiiny.site/">since stated</a> it will revise some of its stickers, but the activism continues.</p>
<p>Melbourne University, meanwhile, is <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/university-closes-book-on-lecturer-transphobia-complaints-20230518-p5d9c4.html">reportedly</a> preparing to deploy security guards outside Lawford-Smith’s second-year feminism class. </p>
<p>University provost Nicola Phillips told The Age it has a “resolute commitment” to academic freedom, which extends to gender-critical perspectives being debated on campus and Lawford-Smith teaching her course. It also has a “positive obligation” to ensure transgender or gender diverse students can “participate fully in the life of the university”.</p>
<p>The campaign raises a host of challenging ethical questions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-essentialism-and-how-does-it-shape-attitudes-to-transgender-people-and-sexual-diversity-203577">What is essentialism? And how does it shape attitudes to transgender people and sexual diversity?</a>
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<hr>
<h2>What’s all the fuss about?</h2>
<p>Lawford-Smith is a “<a href="https://hollylawford-smith.org/what-is-gender-critical-feminism-and-why-is-everyone-so-mad-about-it/">gender critical feminist</a>”. (The term usually used by her opponents is “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERF">terf</a>”: trans-exclusionary radical feminist.) Lawford-Smith’s scholarly research and public engagements are critical of gender identity, arguing for the significance of biological sex.</p>
<p>Lawford-Smith is <a href="https://hollylawford-smith.org/censorship-timeline/">no stranger</a> to controversy. In 2021 she <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/gender/transphobic-website-puts-melbourne-university-academics-at-odds-20210225-p575u4.html">launched a website</a> collecting anonymous stories from women about their safety in women’s spaces opened to trans women. The website was <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/holly-lawford-smith-transphobic-open-letter/">condemned</a> by more than 1400 staff and students. In particular, <a href="http://perfors.net/blog/academic-integrity/">sustained critiques</a> were raised against the website’s scholarly standards, challenging whether it warranted protection on the basis of academic freedom.</p>
<p>More recently, Lawford-Smith spoke at the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-26/kellie-jay-keen-minshullanti-trans-rights-liberal-party-debate/102142130">controversial</a> “Let Women Speak Rally” in Melbourne, attended by far-right extremists – complete with Nazi salutes. In response, the activism against her intensified, linking her (and, it seems, her students) to fascism.</p>
<p>The case bears striking similarity to that of UK philosopher <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/28/sussex-professor-kathleen-stock-resigns-after-transgender-rights-row">Kathleen Stock</a>. A long-running campaign from trans activists made Stock fear for her safety, driving her to resign.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-public-safety-trump-free-speech-history-suggests-there-is-a-case-for-banning-anti-trans-activist-posie-parker-from-nz-202118">Does public safety trump free speech? History suggests there is a case for banning anti-trans activist Posie Parker from NZ</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s academic freedom? Why is it important?</h2>
<p>A key concern in considering the case is academic freedom. As Carolyn Evans and Adrienne Stone argue in <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/open-minds">Open Minds: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech in Australia</a>, academic freedom differs from the more general notion of free speech. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528772/original/file-20230529-27-wmgf5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Free speech is a right held by everyone, justified by – and limited by – ethical concerns with truth, autonomy and democracy.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/academic-freedom">academic freedom</a> is a narrower principle that specifically protects university scholars. Academic freedom provides academics with autonomy over what they research, the results they draw, and their dissemination of that research. It also grants them some autonomy over the subject matter they teach. </p>
<p>Academic freedom is important because if scholars are constrained from arguing against prevailing views, then universities cannot fulfil their socially critical role of challenging dogmas and unearthing new truths. The progress of science and the development of knowledge depends on new and contrary ideas being aired and tested.</p>
<p>Academic freedom doesn’t allow scholars to do whatever they want. Academics must still use scholarly methods of providing evidence and reasoning, publishing in peer-reviewed outlets, and obeying ethical constraints on how they research. But the academic chooses what they research, and – critically – <em>what conclusions they draw</em>.</p>
<p>Academic freedom can be threatened, in different ways, by domestic governments and security agencies, foreign governments, industry (through leveraging research funding), and even the increasingly commercial nature of university administration. </p>
<p>But can it also be threatened by student activism?</p>
<h2>Students have rights too</h2>
<p>University students have rights of free speech, including rights to protest and to call for boycotts. Indeed, an important part of university life is for students to find their voice and learn to vigorously defend their ideas.</p>
<p>While lawful and non-disruptive protests are clearly protected, peaceful but disruptive protests, like sit-ins, can also be morally justified. Student protesters have historically been drivers of vital moral change – such as in the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/sit-ins">civil rights movement</a> in the US, and Charles Perkins’ <a href="https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Students_lead_%E2%80%98Freedom_Rides%E2%80%99_through_segregated_NSW_towns#:%7E:text=The%201965%20Freedom%20Ride%20%E2%80%93%20led,New%20South%20Wales%20country%20towns.">freedom ride</a> here in Australia.</p>
<p>The question is what to do when peaceful protest tips into personalised attacks aiming to remove specific university employees, or into sustained disruption of classes that other students want to take.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528951/original/file-20230530-39262-eelg8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Students have a right to protest – as in this recent demonstration over university fees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>Is this campaign consistent with academic freedom?</h2>
<p>A campaign spokesperson <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/class-warfare-lecturer-targeted-by-trans-activists-over-rally-role-20230505-p5d5vr.html">told The Age</a> that the activists believed in academic freedom, but that universities only had the right to “propagate unpopular ideas, not bigoted ones”.</p>
<p>The problem is that determining what speech counts as bigoted or harmful – outside of the most obvious cases of (say) racial slurs or incitements to violence – is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/ethics-of-responding-to-arguments-with-allegations/12588796">acutely informed</a> by a person’s beliefs, values and politics.</p>
<p>It is common for groups (on all sides of politics, and throughout history) to believe that those speaking out against their cause are not only mistaken, but morally wrong and actively harmful.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see what is left of academic freedom if small groups of students can, through tactics of targeted attacks on individual scholars, deliberately impose their views on what counts as prohibited research ideas and harmful speech. </p>
<p>After all, if the campaign is successful, there’s no guarantee that the practice would not continue and even expand. The present activism aims to remove Lawford-Smith from teaching one course. However, the arguments presented, and the rhetoric accompanying them (“Transphobes and Nazis off campus!”), could potentially be used to have her, and others who share her views, removed entirely. </p>
<p>Even if existing gender critical theorists were not systematically purged from universities, aspiring academics nevertheless would be well-warned to steer clear of research that could get them cancelled. <a href="https://quillette.com/2023/04/17/philosophys-no-go-zone/">Some</a> argue this process of chilling gender-critical research has already begun.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-differences-between-free-speech-hate-speech-and-academic-freedom-and-they-matter-124764">There are differences between free speech, hate speech and academic freedom – and they matter</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Should courses be taught by controversial public speakers?</h2>
<p>It has also been argued that, while perhaps gender-critical ideas can be taught, they should not be taught by someone who <a href="https://fighttransphobiaunimelb.tiiny.site/">publicly holds such contentious views</a>. Trans or gender-questioning students in Lawford-Smith’s courses might feel personally attacked and marginalised by her public statements.</p>
<p>This is an important concern. Universities should foster respectful relations between teachers and students. However, the argument in this context looks inconsistent. </p>
<p>After all, scholars supporting trans rights also take clear, public positions on controversial issues. Sometimes they can use extremely strong moral language to condemn opposing thinkers as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/transgender-disputes-threaten-split-university-unions">bigoted, hateful, or phobic</a>. This is the language of <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/uncivil-wars">contempt</a>, and it attacks not only the idea but the character of the person who holds it.</p>
<p>Yet there is every reason to believe those same scholars might teach students who have gender-critical sympathies, and even identities, who feel excluded and morally attacked for their beliefs.</p>
<h2>Should students have academic freedom?</h2>
<p>Some of the most valuable university learning occurs when students discuss their own controversial ideas, and engage with other students’ opposing arguments. To this end, students can deserve academic freedom (as they are granted in <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1989/0080/latest/DLM183665.html">New Zealand</a>).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/2020-college-free-speech-rankings">international evidence</a> suggests that many students suppress their views out of fear of repercussions. (<a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2021-ses-national-report.pdf">Australia’s current situation</a> seems somewhat better.)</p>
<p>Fight Transphobia UniMelb <a href="https://fighttransphobiaunimelb.tiiny.site/">has said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We in no way seek to intimidate those who take Holly Lawford-Smith’s subject, and we apologise to anyone who has felt this way. We do hope however to equip students with the knowledge required to make appropriate enrolment decisions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the worries with this anonymous boycott campaign is the way it targets students, and might intimidate them from taking controversial courses or airing unpopular views. If it did, then the students’ academic freedom would be imperilled. </p>
<p>Still, there are no easy solutions here, as these freedoms apply equally to those supporting, and those questioning, the boycott. It’s been alleged that Lawford-Smith has shut down contrary views in her classes (a claim she strongly denies). </p>
<p>Perhaps the best policy for universities in this space is to engage in pro-active, deliberate and sustained efforts to “<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/free-speech-campus-calls-both-hard-heads-and-soft-hearts">enlighten up</a>”, developing <a href="https://theconversation.com/actually-its-ok-to-disagree-here-are-5-ways-we-can-argue-better-121178">students’ capabilities</a> to disagree well, and stressing the need for tolerance of opposing views.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/feel-free-to-disagree-on-campus-by-learning-to-do-it-well-151019">Feel free to disagree on campus ... by learning to do it well</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A self-defeating success?</h2>
<p>A final concern is that successfully silencing gender-critical feminist thought through these forms of protest and targeting might ultimately prove counter-productive to trans rights.</p>
<p>In some US states, Republican governments have recently pushed through <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/us/texas-transgender-care-ban-children.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20230518&instance_id=92831&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=71689150&segment_id=133217&te=1&user_id=81faa0c1caf44cb65829484db51acca1">extreme anti-trans legislation and policy</a>. These policies can be trenchantly critiqued on the basis that they are out of step with the medical science. But that critique can only be levelled if the science is itself trustworthy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528963/original/file-20230530-21-t1y3wf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opponents of a Texas bill banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender children protest at the Texas Capitol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mikala Compton/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the universities that produce the science have silenced rather than refuted gender critical scholars and other opposing viewpoints, then universities will not – and, indeed, should not – be trusted as a reliable source of knowledge.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the student campaign raises serious and challenging ethical issues. Students must be allowed to give voice to their social justice values, and to publicly criticise their own universities when they transgress those values. But at the same time, protesters need to be sensitive to when their actions slip into the territory of bullying, intimidating and threatening individuals. </p>
<p>More fundamentally – if the above arguments on academic freedom are correct – were universities to allow protesters to effectively determine what standpoints scholarly researchers could take and disseminate, they would betray their social role as universities.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>An earlier version of this article stated Lawford-Smith has been critiqued for shutting down contrary views in her classes. This sentence has now been amended to reflect the fact she has denied these allegations.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugh Breakey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trans activists are running a campaign against University of Melbourne philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith. It raises a host of challenging ethical questions.Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law. President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics., Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2026952023-03-29T15:35:26Z2023-03-29T15:35:26ZDebate: The case of Pinar Selek is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by academics in Turkey and around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517753/original/file-20230327-763-o11v59.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C1902%2C1074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pinar Selek at a conference in Paris in 2010.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinar_selek.jpg">Streetpepper/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On 31 March 2023, a trial will be held in Istanbul against <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-travail-genre-et-societes-2018-2-page-5.htm">Pinar Selek</a>, a sociologist, writer, feminist, anti-militarist and pacifist activist, exiled in France since the end of 2011 and facing life imprisonment in Turkey.</p>
<p>Selek has suffered from <a href="https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/la-persecution-sans-fin-de-pinar-selek-refugiee-en-france-16-01-2023-2504973_24.php">relentless judicial persecution by the Turkish authorities</a> for 25 years – half a life. The reason? Her refusal to reveal the identity of the people she interviewed during an investigation she conducted on the Kurdish movements.</p>
<p>Arrested in July 1998, she was <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgmcli">tortured</a> and imprisoned for more than two years. Behind bars, she learns she is accused of having planted a bomb that would have exploded in the spice market in Istanbul, killing 7 people and injuring 121.</p>
<p>Selek was released at the end of December 2000, and acquitted in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2014 following expert reports showing the tragedy was caused by the accidental explosion of a gas cylinder. Although the Turkish judiciary has cleared her four times, the prosecutor has appealed after each acquittal. After a silence of almost nine years, the Turkish Supreme Court announced the annulment of her latest acquittal and thus this new trial, which will be held in her absence.</p>
<p>Even before the 31 March hearing, Pinar Selek was the subject of an <a href="https://www.lalsace.fr/faits-divers-justice/2023/01/16/mandat-d-arret-international-contre-pinar-selek-une-farce-judiciaire">international arrest warrant</a> by Turkey. Nine years after the researcher’s last acquittal, it is difficult not to link the Turkish justice’s revived interest in the academic to the forthcoming presidential and legislative elections scheduled for May and the celebration of the centenary of the Turkish Republic.</p>
<p>Beyond Pinar Selek’s personal plight, this episode illustrates the repression academics have faced in Turkey for years and which intensified further after the 2016 coup attempt.</p>
<h2>Scientific freedom at risk</h2>
<p>Wanted for “sociological crime”, the researcher has said, “I will not give up.”</p>
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<span class="caption">Pinar Selek Support Committee, Basque Country. (Click to zoom in)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blogs.mediapart.fr/fred-sochard/blog/080323/justice-pour-pinar-selek">Fred Sochard</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Since arriving in France in 2011, Selek has defended a <a href="https://www.theses.fr/164430822">doctoral thesis</a> in political science at the University of Strasbourg, <a href="https://www.cairn.info/publications-de-Pinar-Selek--140498.htm">published a myriad of scientific works</a> and taught at the Université Côte d'Azur. After benefiting from a <a href="https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/fr/programme-PAUSE">state grant for exiled artists and scientists</a> for the first two years, she was awarded a permanent teaching-research position in 2022 by the University of Côte d'Azur.</p>
<p>In her plight, it is also academic freedom that is at stake. The presidents of the Côte d'Azur and Strasbourg universities, as well as numerous research laboratories and other university and scientific bodies have <a href="https://pinarselek.fr/actualites/soutien-a-pinar-selek-la-mobilisation-sorganise/">publicly taken a stance</a> in her favour. University, student and activist support groups have also been formed. She was appointed <a href="https://sociologuesdusuperieur.org/cat/pinarselek">honorary president of the Association of Sociologists of Higher Education</a>. A delegation of <a href="https://pinarselek.fr/actualites/une-centaine-deuropeen%c2%b7nes-convergeront-a-istanbul-le-31-mars-prochain-au-proces-de-pinar-selek/">nearly a hundred French and foreign representatives</a> from the civil, associative, cultural, artistic, political, legal, scientific, academic and student worlds will travel to Istanbul to attend her trial, demand the truth and officially ask for justice to be done.</p>
<p>Engaged in a movement to open up the social sciences to society and to criticise scientific postures in the service of the established order, Pinar Selek is a “scientist in danger”. Even though she obtained French citizenship in 2017, she continues to suffer the political violence of an authoritarian regime that attacks <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-liberte-scientifique-en-danger-sur-les-cinq-continents-130624">the autonomy of the academic world</a> – a phenomenon over which Turkey has no monopoly. Many Iraqi, Syrian, Afghan, Egyptian, Turkish, Iranian and other <a href="https://www.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/les-chercheurs-etrangers-en-danger-ont-besoin-de-pause">academics</a> are paying a <a href="https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-le-combat-de-fariba-adelkhah-est-le-combat-de-tous-139892">heavy price through state repression</a>.</p>
<h2>A situation that has escalated in Turkey since 2016</h2>
<p>The situation of Pinar Selek reflects the rise of authoritarianism in Turkey, particularly noticeable since the strengthening of presidential powers following the <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2017/04/16/le-premier-ministre-turc-proclame-la-victoire-du-oui-au-referendum-constitutionnel_5112199_3210.html">April 2017 referendum</a>.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/le-reportage-de-la-redaction/retour-sur-le-putsch-rate-de-2016-en-turquie-4604024">coup attempt on 15 July 2016</a> in which hundreds of civilians, soldiers, police officers lost their lives, a large number of academics have been <a href="https://laviedesidees.fr/La-chasse-aux-intellectuels-en-Turquie.html">designated as targets by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan</a>. The signatories of the <a href="https://mouvements.info/des-universitaires-pour-la-paix-en-turquie/">Academics for Peace Petition</a> have been accused of terrorism, subjected to professional ostracism, prosecution and media lynching.</p>
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<p>Among them, <a href="https://barisicinakademisyenler.net/node/314">549 academics</a> have been forced to resign or retire, dismissed, revoked and banned from public service under the decree laws. The case of the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/fr/latest/campaigns/2022/06/turkiye-free-the-gezi-7/">“Gezi Seven”</a> is emblematic of the massive repression of human rights in the country. Among them, publisher and patron Osman Kavala, imprisoned in 2017, was sentenced to life imprisonment for organising and financing the Gezi protests in 2013, without the possibility of parole <a href="https://www.ldh-france.org/la-turquie-doit-liberer-sans-delai-osman-kavala/">after being unjustly convicted of an “attempted coup d'état”</a>. </p>
<p>Although there was a Turkish Constitutional Court decision on 26 July 2019 acquitting them, these academics have lost their jobs and have been subjected to harassment in their professional environment. In addition, the <a href="https://science-societe.fr/soutien-aux-universitaires-turcs-pour-la-paix/">Turkish National Research Agency</a> blocks their publications. Terrorism charges continue, especially in relation to the Kurdish issue. For example, in October 2021, writer Meral Simsek was sentenced to one year, three months in prison for <a href="https://actualitte.com/article/107920/international/turquie-l-autrice-et-editrice-kurde-meral-simsek-condamnee-en-appel">“propaganda for a terrorist organisation”</a>.</p>
<p>Threats are also made to researchers based in France. In 2019, the mathematician <a href="https://aoc.media/entretien/2019/11/15/tuna-altinel-mon-proces-na-aucune-raison-detre/">Tuna Altinel</a>, a teacher-researcher at the University of Lyon 1, who was accused of terrorist propaganda for having taken part in a public meeting in Villeurbanne on the army’s war crimes in the southeast of the country, was arrested in Turkey. Released after three months, he was only able to get his passport back and return to France in June 2021, after a long battle <a href="https://blogs.mediapart.fr/amities-kurdes-de-lyon/blog/240522/trois-ans-apres-les-persecutions-contre-tuna-altinel-continuent">which is not over yet</a>.</p>
<p>Hundreds of abusive arrests, acquittals – most often overturned on appeal by the Court of Cassation – and cases retried despite the recommendations of the <a href="https://www.coe.int/fr/web/commissioner/country-monitoring/turkey">European Court of Human Rights</a>, punctuate this bleak picture. But the many hardships faced by researchers have strengthened their solidarity, as evidenced by their stories in Eylem Sen’s documentary <a href="https://www.amnesty.be/evenement/projection-debat-documentaire-living-truth-eylem"><em>Living in Truth</em></a>.</p>
<h2>In the name of the unconditional freedom of expression of researchers</h2>
<p>“By condemning Pinar Selek, the Turkish government is attacking the independence of social science research,” reads the headline of </p>
<p>An article published in <em>Le Monde</em> in July 2022 by a group of academics, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2022/07/12/en-condamnant-pinar-selek-c-est-a-l-independance-de-la-recherche-en-sciences-sociales-que-s-attaque-le-gouvernement-turc_6134424_3232.html">“By condemning Pinar Selek, the Turkish government is attacking the independence of social science research”</a>, reminds us of the vulnerability of researchers to the attacks they face in many countries.</p>
<p>International conferences and declarations regularly reaffirm the protection of academic freedoms, but maintaining them requires constant struggles by the <a href="https://contrelarepressionenturquie.wordpress.com/">academic community</a> and they are, in fact, <a href="https://www.cairn.info/liberte-de-la-recherche--9782841749485-page-71.htm">never permanent</a> students, professors and researchers are always at best suspected or threatened at worst arrested, tortured and killed, when strong powers are established to which they refuse to submit.</p>
<p>A “poetry activist”, as she likes to call herself, Pinar Selek, who is also the author of novels and children’s stories, is subject to political violence that can only be combated by denouncing and overturning her life sentence. Her tireless struggle against injustice, oppression and attacks on academic freedom, which are now being undermined in <a href="https://academia.hypotheses.org/30191">many parts of the world</a>, illustrates that of all threatened scientists <a href="https://theconversation.com/la-liberte-academique-aux-prises-avec-de-nouvelles-menaces-171682">in authoritarian countries, but also in democracies</a>. </p>
<p>Our solidarity with her is more than a moral duty. It is part of a shared struggle in the service of freedom of research and the exercise of a citizenship that must more than ever assert itself as <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/03/25/face-a-l-acharnement-du-pouvoir-turc-contre-la-sociologue-pinar-selek-les-pays-europeens-doivent-cesser-de-regarder-ailleurs_6166957_3232.html">transnational</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valérie Erlich est membre du Comité de soutien Université Côte d'Azur à Pinar Selek</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fanny Jedlicki is president of ASES.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pascale Laborier est membre du comité de parrainage de PAUSE.
Elle a un projet de recherche financé par l'Institut Convergences Migrations</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvie Monchatre is a member of the Lyon collective of solidarity with Pinar Selek</span></em></p>A refugee in France, the Turkish sociologist has been persecuted in her country for 25 years. Her case is emblematic of the repression of academics in Turkey – and elsewhere.Valérie Erlich, Maîtresse de conférences de sociologie, URMIS (Unité de recherche Migrations et Société), CNRS, IRD, Université Côte d’AzurFanny Jedlicki, Maîtresse de conférences de sociologie, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Innovations Sociétales (LIRIS), Université Rennes 2Pascale Laborier, Professeure de science politique, Institut des sciences sociales du politique (ISP), Université Paris Nanterre – Université Paris LumièresSylvie Monchatre, Professeure de sociologie, Université Lumière Lyon 2 Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2020372023-03-20T19:23:54Z2023-03-20T19:23:54ZNZ universities are not normal Crown institutions – they shouldn’t be ‘Tiriti-led’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516247/original/file-20230320-28-gb9640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C22%2C5084%2C3363&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As part of its <a href="https://www.otago.ac.nz/otago0241079.pdf">aspiration</a> to be “Tiriti-led”, the University of Otago has embarked on a <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/15-03-2023/the-process-to-rebrand-our-oldest-university">consultation process</a> to re-brand. The proposed change involves a new logo and a new, deeply symbolic Māori name: Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. </p>
<p>Universities occasionally change logos, names and marketing strategies. All New Zealand institutions have added te reo Māori to their original titles, often opting for a literal translation – “Te Whare Wānanga” – to describe their status as a university. But Otago is taking it a step further. </p>
<p>Metaphorically, “whakaihu” refers to the university’s place as the country’s oldest university, as well as its Māori students often being the first to graduate from their whanau and communities. And it symbolically includes everyone on the “<a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search/?keywords=waka">waka</a>”.</p>
<p>That is exactly what a university is supposed to be, of course – a place for everyone. A place where people are free to think and develop ideas, even contested or unpopular ones. As the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS170676.html">Education and Training Act 2020</a> says, universities must operate as the “critic and conscience of society”. </p>
<p>But being “Tiriti-led” is not as straightforward. It throws into sharp relief where universities sit in relation to the Crown under te Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi. This, in turn, raises quite fundamental questions about what a university is in the first place.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-significance-of-the-treaty-of-waitangi-110982">Explainer: the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi</a>
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<h2>What is te Tiriti, what is a university?</h2>
<p>Essentially, <a href="https://www.archives.govt.nz/discover-our-stories/the-treaty-of-waitangi">te Tiriti o Waitangi</a> was the Māori language agreement in 1840 between Māori hapu and the British Crown which set out the terms of British settlement. Britain could establish government over its own people, hapu would retain authority over their own affairs. </p>
<p>Māori would enjoy the “rights and privileges” of British subjects, a legal status which continues to evolve as New Zealand citizenship. The Treaty of Waitangi is an English language version of the agreement with different and less favourable emphases for Māori.</p>
<p>By wanting to become “Tiriti-led”, <a href="https://www.otago.ac.nz/otago0241079.pdf">Otago has decided</a> it is part of the Crown party to this agreement. This makes Kai Tahu, as mana whenua (people of the land), the university’s “principal Tiriti partner”. </p>
<p>By contrast, when <a href="https://www.massey.ac.nz/about/te-tiriti-o-waitangi-massey/strategy-and-charter/">Massey University says</a> it’s Tiriti-led, it doesn’t explicitly say it’s part of the Crown. Auckland University of Technology’s <a href="https://www.aut.ac.nz/about/auts-leadership/welcome-from-the-vice-chancellor">vice-chancellor</a> has said his university is Tiriti-led, but there’s no definition to be easily found on the public record. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/colonial-ideas-have-kept-nz-and-australia-in-a-rut-of-policy-failure-we-need-policy-by-indigenous-people-for-the-people-188583">Colonial ideas have kept NZ and Australia in a rut of policy failure. We need policy by Indigenous people, for the people</a>
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<p>Styling a relationship in this way is significant – but not necessarily in ways that keep faith with te Tiriti o Waitangi, or with the essential purposes of a university.</p>
<p>Universities are owned and principally funded by the Crown. But their obligation to independent scholarship means they can’t be part of the Crown in the <em>same</em> way as a government department. Universities don’t take direction from ministers in the same way, and their staff are not public servants. They are not part of the executive branch of government.</p>
<p>Together with their students and graduates, <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0048/1.0/whole.html">academics <em>are</em> the university</a> – a community of scholars obliged to contribute to the discovery and sharing of knowledge, but not obliged to serve the government of the day.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516252/original/file-20230320-14-r3wi40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In the same waka but on different sides of the partnership: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at Waitangi this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Us and them</h2>
<p>Parliament and the executive (government ministers) together decide what te Tiriti means to the Crown side of the relationship. Public servants offer advice, but ultimately take ministers’ instructions on giving effect to whatever is the Crown’s Tiriti policy. </p>
<p>Academics, however, can take a different view. They’re not bound by what the Crown side of the agreement thinks. And, as developments in te Tiriti policy show, academic independence makes a difference.</p>
<p>In 1877, New Zealand’s <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/the-chief-justice-declares-that-the-treaty-of-waitangi-is-worthless-and-a-simple-nullity">Supreme Court found</a> the Treaty was legally a “simple nullity” because it had not been incorporated into domestic law. It wasn’t the public servant’s role to object, at least not in public. That kind of intellectual freedom belongs elsewhere. Explicitly, it’s one of the reasons universities exist. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/putting-te-tiriti-at-the-centre-of-aotearoa-new-zealands-public-policy-can-strengthen-democracy-heres-how-180305">Putting te Tiriti at the centre of Aotearoa New Zealand’s public policy can strengthen democracy – here's how</a>
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<p>Academics – Māori and others – have contributed significantly to developments in te Tiriti policy since 1877, especially in more recent years. Their contributions have often contested prevailing political thought. Universities have given Māori academics – and through them, Māori communities – the kind of voice unavailable to public servants working for the Crown partner. </p>
<p>Partnership is one of the “<a href="https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/o-matou-mohiotanga/crownmaori-relations/he-tirohanga-o-kawa-ki-te-tiriti-o-waitangi">Treaty principles</a>”, developed legally and politically as an interpretive guide to the agreement. But partnership creates a “them” and “us” binary. </p>
<p>In my book, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-33-4172-2">Sharing the Sovereign: recognition, treaties and the state</a>, I show how this binary encourages people to think of the Crown as exclusively Pākehā. Any institution that is not solely Māori is an institution that belongs to “them”. </p>
<p>This reinforces Māori separation from the university as an institution that should belongs to all of us – and to each of us in our own ways.</p>
<h2>Academics are not public servants</h2>
<p>If an institution represents one side of a partnership, that institution cannot be a “place for everyone”. A Māori student or staff member should be able to say, “I belong here as much as anybody else, with the same rights, opportunities and obligations to contribute to the institution’s culture, values and purpose.”</p>
<p>That includes the right to study and teach te Tiriti with an independence that is not available to public servants.</p>
<p>In 2020, I helped develop “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1468796819896466">Critical Tiriti Analysis</a>”, a policy evaluation method that could be used to assess public policy consistency with te Tiriti. While anecdotally it seems now to be widely used across the public service, it’s not something likely to have been written by a public servant. The Crown is a cautious Tiriti partner. </p>
<p>Thoroughness and objectivity – but not political caution – guide academic contributions to policy debate. Such contributions are different in style and purpose from the kind of policy making that it is the duty of the public service to undertake. </p>
<p>Universities are not the Crown in the same sense, and this is why they are not Tiriti partners.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic O'Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Otago University has followed Massey in aspiring to be a “Tiriti-led” institution. But this implies being on the Crown side of the partnership – which is not where a university should be.Dominic O'Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1984842023-02-23T13:33:02Z2023-02-23T13:33:02ZNovelist, academic and tattoo artist Samuel Steward’s plight shows that ‘cancel culture’ was alive and well in the 1930s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511802/original/file-20230222-20-4w67dr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C10%2C1201%2C890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Outside of teaching and writing, Samuel Steward took up tattooing.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2010/07/26/books/0726SECRET2/0726SECRET2-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp">The Estate of Samuel M. Steward</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2023, Hamline University <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/hamline-university-islam-prophet-muhammad.html">opted not to renew the contract</a> of an art professor who showed a 14th-century depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in class. Hamline labeled the incident “Islamophobic” and released a statement, co-signed by the university’s president, saying that respect for “Muslim students … should have superseded academic freedom.” </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/01/hamline-university-adjunct-professor-freedom/672713/">widespread backlash</a>, the university walked back that statement. However, the lecturer was still not rehired.</p>
<p>Concerns about academic freedom are nothing new. Rather than being a product of recent “<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-cancel-cancel-culture-164666">cancel culture</a>,” tension has long existed over the ability of professors to freely teach and write about controversial topics without fear of retribution.</p>
<p>More than 80 years ago, an English professor named <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/books/26secret.html">Samuel Steward</a> was dismissed from his teaching position after publishing what his college’s president deemed a “racy” novel.</p>
<p><a href="https://works.bepress.com/alessandro-meregaglia/">As an archivist and scholar</a> studying publishing in the American West, I’ve located published and unpublished archival sources detailing the controversy surrounding Steward after he published his first novel, which ultimately cost him his job.</p>
<h2>A book met with backlash</h2>
<p>A native of the Midwest, Steward earned his Ph.D. in English in 1934 from Ohio State University. The following year, Washington State College – now Washington State University – hired Steward to teach classes on a one-year contract.</p>
<p>An aspiring writer, Steward drafted his first novel while still a graduate student. He worked to find a publisher and contacted a small firm in rural Idaho. After an editorial review, Caxton Printers agreed to publish Steward’s novel, “Angels on the Bough,” which told the story of a small group of characters and their intertwined lives in a college town.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white portrait of man wearing small glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511495/original/file-20230221-28-b44wu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Caxton Printers founder James H. Gipson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lehigh University Special Collections</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Founded in 1907, <a href="https://www.caxtonpress.com/">Caxton Printers</a> has earned national attention for its fierce defense of freedom of expression and unique publishing philosophy. Caxton’s founder, James H. Gipson, understood the transformative power of books and sought to give a voice to deserving writers when other firms rejected them. Profit was not a motivator. As Gipson <a href="https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv02075">explained</a> to Steward, “We are interested not in making money out of any author for whom we may publish, but in helping him.”</p>
<p>Caxton published “Angels on the Bough” in May 1936. </p>
<p>The book immediately received reviews, almost entirely positive, in dozens of newspapers across the country. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1936/05/31/archives/trouble-in-academe-angels-on-the-bough-sm-steward-317-pp-caldwell.html">The New York Times</a> wrote favorably about the novel, describing Steward as possessing “a very distinct gift above the usual.”</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gertrude-stein">Gertrude Stein</a>, the American writer and expatriate who lived most of her life in France, lauded “Angels on the Bough” in a letter she penned to Steward.</p>
<p>“I like it I like it a lot, you have really created a piece of something,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dear_Sammy/A1dbAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22quite%20definitely%22">Stein wrote</a>. “It quite definitely did something to me.”</p>
<h2>Steward loses his job</h2>
<p>Despite the favorable reception, the book started causing trouble for Steward before it was even published. Review copies reached campus in early May 1936. Steward soon began hearing rumors that college administrators found his book distasteful for its sympathetic portrayal of a prostitute, one of the main characters.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A yellow book cover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511801/original/file-20230222-26-roekc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1097&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The publication of ‘Angels on the Bough’ prompted Washington State College to not renew Steward’s contract.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandro Meregaglia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, as Steward <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_Sunshine_Interviews/T8wYAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22little%20women%22">noted in an interview</a> during the 1970s, the book was “very tame – reading like ‘Little Women’ by today’s standards.”</p>
<p>Steward sent an urgent telegram to Gipson asking him to stop selling the book on campus: “A young poor man with only one job asks that you withdraw his novel … because his departmental head and dean hint at his discharge.”</p>
<p>Caxton had advertised the book as “not appeal[ing] to the less liberal mind.” This “alarmed several people,” <a href="https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv02075">according to Steward</a>. The head of the English department told Steward his book contained “unsavory material” and that Steward’s position “would undoubtedly prove very embarrassing” to the college.</p>
<p>Despite this, Steward still planned to return to teach classes the following autumn. Earlier that spring, he had been verbally assured that he would receive another one-year contract. Three weeks later, however – and just hours before he left campus for the summer – Washington State’s president, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100308091433/http:/president.wsu.edu/office/university-governance/past-presidents/holland.html">Ernest O. Holland</a>, summoned Steward to a meeting.</p>
<p>Holland informed Steward his contract would not be renewed. He accused Steward of writing a “racy” novel and of being sympathetic with a <a href="https://content.libraries.wsu.edu/digital/collection/clipping/id/110709/rec/3">student strike</a> a month earlier.</p>
<p>Angered, Steward immediately dashed off a telegram to Gipson: “Discharged by God Holland for writing a racy novel … I have no regrets whatsoever despite the fact his methods were those of Hitler but think I will take up stenography.”</p>
<p>Steward and Gipson both set to work to widely publicize Steward’s dismissal. Steward appealed to the <a href="https://www.aaup.org/">Association of American University Professors</a> for assistance. Founded in 1915, the association’s primary purpose is “to advance academic freedom.” The organization still regularly investigates violations of academic freedom, <a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-launches-inquiry-hamline-university#.Y_U3HHbMKUk">including what happened at Hamline University</a>.</p>
<p>After months of investigation, the AAUP published <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40219810">its report</a>. It determined that Steward had been unjustly let go and concluded that “President Holland’s handling of the Steward case has been most ill-judged, and indicates … improper restriction of literary freedom.”</p>
<h2>From teaching to tattooing</h2>
<p>After leaving Washington State, Steward promptly found a position at Loyola, a Catholic university in Chicago. Before hiring him, Loyola’s dean read Steward’s book and apparently had no objections. An AAUP member <a href="https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/374014">noted the irony</a>: “Apparently our Catholic brethren are much more tolerant than a state institution in Washington.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Shirtless tattooed man smoking a cigarette." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511498/original/file-20230221-3821-5leisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1207&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Samuel Steward worked as a tattoo artist under the alias Phil Sparrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Samuel_Morris_Steward_1957.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Outside of teaching, Steward, who was gay, published gay erotica under the pseudonym Phil Andros and took up tattooing. By 1956, Steward permanently left academia to ply his trade as a tattoo artist full time on Chicago’s South State Street under another alias, Philip Sparrow.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, he moved to California and opened up a tattoo parlor in Oakland, where he became the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secret_Historian/cl9kgQmqj54C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22official%22%20%22hells%20angels%22">“official” tattoo artist</a> for the Hells Angels motorcycle club.</p>
<p>After retiring from tattooing, Steward lived a quiet life in Berkeley. He still wrote frequently, producing a handful of <a href="https://worldcat.org/search?q=au%3D%22Steward%2C+Samuel+M.%22&itemSubType=book-printbook&orderBy=publicationDateDesc&itemSubTypeModified=book-printbook&datePublished=1950-1993">fiction and nonfiction books</a>. Steward <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/20/obituaries/samuel-steward-84-a-writer-about-stein.html">died in California in 1993</a> at the age of 84.</p>
<p>Despite his prolific and varied career, Steward’s legacy as a “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gay_American_Autobiography/6Frgs5iRL4YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22remarkable%20figure%22">remarkable figure in gay literary history</a>” was not widely known until the publication of Justin Spring’s meticulously researched 2010 book, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secret_Historian/cl9kgQmqj54C?hl=en&gbpv=0">Secret Historian</a>.”</p>
<p>Interest in Steward continues. Performance artist John Kelly recently staged a show, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/01/theater/john-kelly-underneath-the-skin.html">Underneath the Skin</a>,” in December 2022 that examined Steward’s life.</p>
<p>It is impossible, of course, to know the trajectory of Samuel Steward’s career if he had been reappointed to Washington State for another year. But a prescient comment Steward made just before his dismissal suggests that he sensed he couldn’t stay in academia forever: “I am afraid I will have to get out of the teaching profession in order to be able to write the way I want to.”</p>
<p>Academic freedom is <a href="https://www.aaup.org/our-work/protecting-academic-freedom/academic-freedom-and-first-amendment-2007">related to free speech</a>. A <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/For_the_Common_Good/y6ozEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">long-standing tradition</a> afforded to college faculty, it shields professors from retribution – from both internal and external sources – for teaching controversial topics within their area of expertise. <a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure">According to the AAUP</a>, academic freedom is based on the premise that higher education promotes “the common good (which) depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.” </p>
<p>This protection covers both classroom lectures and publications.</p>
<p>With debates about academic freedom lately making headlines – from <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/society/hrw-harvard-israel-kennedy-school/">outside interests influencing appointments</a>, to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/01/hamline-university-adjunct-professor-freedom/672713/">administrators kowtowing to vocal students</a>, to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/11/desantis-seeks-overhaul-small-liberal-arts-college">politicians changing oversight of public universities</a> – Steward’s plight some 87 years ago is a reminder that this freedom requires constant defense.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Meregaglia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ability of professors to freely teach and write about controversial topics without fear of retribution is nothing new.Alessandro Meregaglia, Associate Professor and Archivist, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1949542023-02-02T21:22:48Z2023-02-02T21:22:48ZUniversity presidents’ trip to Israel undermines academic freedom and democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506156/original/file-20230124-13-5n3keg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C273%2C2950%2C1832&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People in Montréal attend a demonstration on May 15, 2021, to denounce Israel's military actions in the Palestinian territories. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Multiple presidents of Canadian universities <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/11/30/anti-palestinian-racism-on-canadian-campuses">travelled to Israel</a> in August of 2022. </p>
<p>The purpose of the visit was <a href="https://www.biu.ac.il/en/article/11577">to build and deepen research partnerships between Israeli and Canadian research universities</a>. </p>
<p>This trip was led by <a href="https://www.cija.ca/who_we_are">the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)</a>, a non-profit organization that advocates <a href="https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/clntSmmry?clientOrgCorpNumber=111">and lobbies for</a> Jewish federations across Canada. As education scholar Sheryl Nestel has noted, CIJA also has a track record of being among organizations that have acted as <a href="https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/advocating-for-palestine-in-canada">political proxies for the Israeli state</a>.</p>
<p>The delegation visited only one Palestinian University: <a href="https://www.alquds.edu/en/news/staff-news/31520/leaders-of-13-canadian-universities-visit-aqu-to-discuss-cooperation/">Al-Quds University, at its main Jerusalem campus</a> — a sad illustration of tokenism. Regardless of what was intended, a trip to Israel <a href="https://twitter.com/myriam_ah/status/1565601218109612032">sponsored by CIJA</a> is not neutral: it makes a loud political statement.</p>
<p>By participating in this trip, the Canadian university delegates took a stand against the campaign for <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/">boycotting, divesting and sanctioning the state of Israel</a>,
including an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, until Israel complies with <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/10/commission-inquiry-finds-israeli-occupation-unlawful-under-international-law">international law</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">universal principles of human rights</a>. </p>
<h2>Many university leaders attended</h2>
<p>As reported Nov. 30 in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/11/30/anti-palestinian-racism-on-canadian-campuses">an <em>Al Jazeera</em> article</a> by Mark Muhannad Ayyash, one of the authors of this story, Israeli institutions acknowledged trip <a href="https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2022/09/canada-u15-visit/">participants hailed</a> from Concordia University, Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, McGill University, University of Ottawa, Simon Fraser University, University of Waterloo, Western University and York University. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1566410540364218371"}"></div></p>
<p>Bar-Ilan University <a href="https://twitter.com/ubarilan/status/1565322282985291776">tweeted</a> enthusiasm in anticipation of the trip and for the opportunity the trip would provide to strengthen relations between Israel and Canada.</p>
<h2>Academic freedom and democracy</h2>
<p>Universities do create partnerships with one another to enhance their teaching and research capabilities all the time. However, universities should be viewed as caretakers of <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/academic-freedom-and-its-protection-under-international-law">academic freedom and its protection under international law</a>, <a href="https://governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/university-toronto-statement-institutional-purpose">including</a> radical critical teaching and research. </p>
<p>This is because universities’ <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000160495">public mission</a> and <a href="https://www.univcan.ca/media-room/media-releases/statement-on-academic-freedom/">major responsibility</a> is to uphold academic freedom in a democratic society — not to pander to political agendas or ideological preferences. </p>
<p>When universities are seen as favouring one such position, as on the Palestine/Israel issue, their ability to uphold academic freedom as a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/09/08/why-academic-freedom-challenges-are-dangerous-for-democracy/">fundamental tenet of democracy</a> is jeopardized. They fail in safeguarding the free flow of information, in encouraging critical thinking, and in fostering healthy civic discourse. </p>
<p>This summer trip raises grave concerns for academic freedom in every one of these ways.</p>
<h2>Equity-informed lens on academic freedom</h2>
<p>While some <a href="https://www.wlu.ca/about/discover-laurier/freedom-of-expression/statement.html">universities recognize</a> that academic freedom ought to be understood and implemented in relation to the imperatives of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), others have <a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-cant-be-separated-from-responsibility-175026">been criticized</a> for lacking this approach. </p>
<p>People in support of Palestinian rights underscore what they see as a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/560b0bcee4b016db196d664b/1443564494090/Palestine+Exception+Report+Final.pdf">Palestine exception</a> to academic freedom. This means academic freedom as the honest pursuit of knowledge on Palestine and Israel on the basis of Palestinian histories and lived experiences is often <a href="https://iphobiacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Canada-Report-2022-1.pdf">characterized as antisemitic</a>, and as such, is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221130415">marginalized, censored and erased</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen sitting with sombre faces next to cutouts made to look like gravestones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506153/original/file-20230124-23-30bymz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students sit silently among makeshift graves at a memorial for Palestinians killed in the Intifada, part of a show put on by a Palestinian association for human rights, at Concordia University, in March 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Paul Chiasson)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is indeed a form of anti-Palestinian racism. The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61db30d12e169a5c45950345/t/627dcf83fa17ad41ff217964/1652412292220/Anti-Palestinian+Racism-+Naming%2C+Framing+and+Manifestations.pdf">released an April 2022 report</a> outlining anti-Palestinian racism and its silencing impact on Palestinian people and their allies. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.ijvcanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Unveiling-the-Chilly-Climate_Final-compressed.pdf">October 2022 report</a> by Independent Jewish Voices, a grassroots organization grounded in Jewish tradition that opposes racism and advocates for justice and peace in Palestine-Israel, details how Palestinian scholars and those critical of Israeli policies are silenced.</p>
<h2>Complying with international law</h2>
<p>Academic freedom is also severely limited in Palestine due to the fact that Palestinian scholars, students and universities are operating under a 75-year Israeli military occupation. Many now understand and experience this as apartheid.</p>
<p>In 2005, Palestinian civil society organizations named Israel as an apartheid state <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/call">and called</a> for a non-violent boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. </p>
<p>A number of human rights organizations are unanimous in concluding Israel’s practices against Palestinians amount to the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/RS-Eng.pdf">crime against humanity of apartheid</a> under international law, including: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2019/11/12/joint-parallel-report-to-cerd-on-israel-s-17th-19th-periodic-reports-10-november-2019-final-1573563352.pdf">Palestinian human rights groups</a>;</li>
<li><a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">B’Tselem</a> (an Israeli human rights organization);</li>
<li><a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">Human Rights Watch</a>;</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/">Amnesty International</a>;</li>
<li>and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territories-occupied-since-1967-report-a-hrc-49-87-advance-unedited-version/">the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel Since 1967</a>. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Restrictions affect Palestinian universities</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/23/west-bank-new-entry-rules-further-isolate-palestinians">In October 2022,</a> Israel imposed restrictions on access to the West Bank for foreigners. These impact the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/7/15/palestinian-universities-are-once-again-under-attack">ability of Palestinian universities</a> to hire international faculty and invite visiting academics and students to Palestine.</p>
<p>A director at the American non-profit Human Rights Watch notes the policy is “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/23/west-bank-new-entry-rules-further-isolate-palestinians">designed to weaken the social, cultural and intellectual ties that Palestinians have tried to maintain with the outside world</a>.”</p>
<p>These new restrictions vest <a href="https://embassies.gov.il/dublin/ConsularServices/Pages/new-procedures.aspx#">the Israeli Ministry of Defence</a> (the military) with <a href="https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/policies/judeaentry2022">discretion in</a> determining which and how many foreign academics and students will be allowed to visit Palestinian academic institutions. </p>
<p>These rules of movement affecting Palestinians have been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/27/new-israeli-rules-on-foreigners-visiting-west-bank-stir-outrage">criticized</a> as impeding Palestinian academic freedom and for violating international law.</p>
<h2>Normalizes violation of human rights</h2>
<p>Against the backdrop of Palestinian academic freedom being reduced both in Palestine and in Canada, the university presidents’ trip to Israel, supported by <a href="https://twitter.com/CanEmbIsrael/status/1567476495362187269?cxt=HHwWioCzvark5cArAAAA">private foundations</a>, alone was an affront. </p>
<p>This stand is a clear indication Palestinian human rights don’t matter. A trip organized, led by and sponsored by CIJA serves to normalize Israel’s continued violations of Palestinian human rights.</p>
<p>It also damages the independence of universities and relations with Palestinian communities. This is particularly the case <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-u-of-t-law-school-under-fire-for-opting-not-to-hire-human-rights/">following national and international criticism</a> after September 2020 events at University of Toronto’s law school.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://thecjn.ca/news/canada/justice-david-spiro-judicial-council/">former board member of CIJA</a> interfered <a href="https://www.ijvcanada.org/independent-jewish-voices-celebrates-the-reinstatement-of-dr-azarovas-job-offer-at-uoft/">to prevent the hiring of an academic who wrote about Israel’s occupation of Palestine</a>. </p>
<p>This interference led to <a href="https://www.caut.ca/content/censure-against-university-toronto">the University of Toronto being censured</a> by the Canadian Association of University Teachers. </p>
<h2>Harms to universities’ independence, people</h2>
<p>Damage has been done by this CIJA-led trip to universities’ independence, academic freedom and its place in a democratic society. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/11/30/anti-palestinian-racism-on-canadian-campuses">Harms have been caused</a> to Palestinian students, scholars and their allies at Canadian universities. </p>
<p>Canadian university administrators have given permission for the State of Israel to continue its persecution of Palestinians living under its military occupation and in so doing have extended <a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9569">second-class citizenship</a> to Palestinians.</p>
<p>In Canada, the trip has further solidified the Palestine exception to academic freedom and this undermines democracy itself. University presidents must be held accountable.</p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published Feb. 2, 2023. The original story said no Palestinian universities were included on the tour.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dyala Hamzah is affiliated with BDS-Québec.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jillian Rogin is affiliated with Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) as well as the Jewish Faculty Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larry Haiven is affiliated with Independent Jewish Voices Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>M. Muhannad Ayyash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When universities are seen as favouring one position on the Palestine/Israel issue, their ability to uphold academic freedom as a fundamental tenet of democracy is jeopardized.Dyala Hamzah, Associate professor of history, Université de MontréalJillian Rogin, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of WindsorLarry Haiven, Professor Emeritus, Management Department, St. Mary's UniversityM. Muhannad Ayyash, Professor, Sociology, Mount Royal UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1970162023-01-10T23:53:52Z2023-01-10T23:53:52ZNew Zealand does not offer tenure to academics, but a recent employment dispute shows it’s more than a job perk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503709/original/file-20230109-8020-bmh6s5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C136%2C5361%2C3384&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late last year, the Auckland University of Technology (<a href="https://www.aut.ac.nz/?gclid=CjwKCAiAh9qdBhAOEiwAvxIokyNxcYkTRnRCZWO-WBAyUh4HuaGl8kDNjfZb8UDtbiTa_BBzc_AiEhoC0RwQAvD_BwE">AUT</a>) initiated a process to eliminate 170 academic jobs to cut costs. The Employment Relations Authority (<a href="https://www.era.govt.nz/">ERA</a>) found AUT’s approach <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/300778740/employment-court-orders-auckland-university-of-technology-to-scrap-redundancies">breached</a> its collective employment agreement with staff and their <a href="https://teu.ac.nz/">union</a> and ordered it to withdraw the termination notices.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1610913528638238720"}"></div></p>
<p>Tertiary education runs on an <a href="https://auckland.figshare.com/articles/report/Elephant_In_The_Room_Precarious_Work_In_New_Zealand_Universities/19243626">insecure labour force</a> in New Zealand and elsewhere. The AUT decision illustrates that even traditionally secure positions are becoming less so.</p>
<p>Tenure is the traditional protection for academics in the tertiary sector, but New Zealand does not have tenure at its universities. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-many-nz-scholars-the-old-career-paths-are-broken-our-survey-shows-the-reality-for-this-new-academic-precariat-186303">For many NZ scholars, the old career paths are broken. Our survey shows the reality for this new ‘academic precariat’</a>
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<h2>Tenure is more than a perk</h2>
<p>A common argument against tenure is that it leads to a complacent, under-motivated university professor. These concerns are <a href="https://silo.tips/download/despite-attempts-by-some">hypothetical</a> – evidence that tenure causes productivity differences is lacking. In fact, one of few large <a href="https://academic.oup.com/spp/article-abstract/43/3/301/2362888?redirectedFrom=fulltext">studies</a> on the subject found the opposite. Good administrators should be able to manage any actual productivity issues as they do in all other workplaces.</p>
<p>On the other hand, lack of tenure creates risks for free societies. Tenure is common practice in other liberal democracies. <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/recommendation-concerning-status-higher-education-teaching-personnel">UNESCO</a> says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Security of employment in the profession, including tenure […] should be safeguarded as it is essential to the interests of higher education. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tenure is important, if not indispensable, for academic freedom. Academic freedom is essential to a university’s mission, and this mission is a characteristic of a democracy. As University of Regina professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/marc-spooner-400889">Marc Spooner</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-the-often-overlooked-player-in-determining-healthy-democracies-175417">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A country’s institutional commitment to academic freedom is a key indicator of whether its democracy is in good health.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-the-often-overlooked-player-in-determining-healthy-democracies-175417">Universities: The often overlooked player in determining healthy democracies</a>
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<h2>Scholarship is not piecework</h2>
<p>The ERA said AUT misunderstood terminology in the collective employment agreement.
The clash term was “specific position”. AUT’s <a href="https://www.employment.govt.nz/assets/elawpdf/2022/2022-NZERA-676.pdf">position</a> was that specific positions are identified by professional ranks (from lecturer to professor) and the numbers of each role across four particular faculties. </p>
<p>The ERA did not agree and concluded an essential component for identifying specific positions is the employee, being the person who is the current position holder or appointee to a position. </p>
<p>AUT’s assertion would be like the air force using the rank of “captain” to adjust its number of pilots. The number of captains does not tell you what each captain does, be it to fly planes or fix them.</p>
<p>Without tenure, a standard less than this minimum established by the ERA can be used to eliminate academics who have legitimate priorities that do not align with the administrative staff of the day, or are the victims of any other <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/23328584211058472">concealed discrimination</a>. The ERA clarification makes it more difficult to inhibit intramural criticism, the right to criticise the actions taken by managers and leaders of the university. </p>
<p>The authoritative <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-publications/resources/report-independent-review-freedom-speech-australian-higher-education-providers-march-2019">review of freedom of speech and academic freedom</a> in Australian universities singles out the importance of academic freedom for this purpose, saying: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It […] reflects the distinctive relationship of academic staff and universities, a relationship not able to be defined by reference to the ordinary law of employer and employee relationships.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ERA clarification helps to prevent the firing of academics who are teaching, researching or questioning things administrators, funders or governments don’t want them to. But it is a finger in a leaking dyke. Tenure is a tried and tested general solution.</p>
<h2>Health of the democracy</h2>
<p>We only need to observe the events in the United States to recognise the importance of tenure. This benchmark country has a proud tradition of tenure. Nevertheless state governments are <a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/2022-aaup-survey-tenure-practices">dismantling tenure</a> to impose <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/03/14/gop-targets-tenure-to-curb-classroom-discussions-of-race-gender">political control</a> on <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/ron-desantis-florida-critical-race-theory-professors/672507/">curriculums</a>. Our liberal democracy is not immune to this.</p>
<p>We need more than tenure-secured academic freedom to enable universities to do the sometimes dreary and at other times risky work of providing societies alternatives to populist, nationalist or autocratic movements. But as the Douglas Dillon chair in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, Darrell M. West, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/09/08/why-academic-freedom-challenges-are-dangerous-for-democracy/">wrote</a>, academic freedom is a problem for these movements. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Recognizing the moral authority of independent experts, when despots come to power, one of the first things they do is discredit authoritative institutions who hold leaders accountable and encourage an informed citizenry.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a system with tenure, a university would have a defined stand-down period preventing reappointment to vacated positions. For example, if an academic program and associated tenured staff that teach it were eliminated at the <a href="https://catalog.ualr.edu/content.php?catoid=7&navoid=1061#:%7E:text=A%20position%20occupied%20by%20a,period%20of%20five%20academic%20years.">University of Arkansas</a> for financial reasons, the program could not be reactivated for at least five years. The stand-down inhibits whimsical or agenda-fuelled restructuring as a lazy option to manage staff.</p>
<p>If a similar trade-off were to be applied to how AUT defined specific positions, then no academics could be hired there for five years. It is very different to be prevented from hiring academics than it is to, say, not re-establishing a financially struggling department or program.</p>
<p>Herein lies the true value of tenure. It is greater than a protection of the individual. It protects society from wasteful or ideologically motivated restructuring as an alternative to poor management. Tenure is security of the public trust in our universities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Heinemann is a member of the Tertiary Education Union and the network of scholars called Academic Freedom Aotearoa. He is an expert witness on academic freedom in the Employment Court. This work is his opinion and does not represent the opinion of the University of Canterbury.</span></em></p>The true value of tenure goes beyond protection of the individual. It protects society from ideologically motivated restructuring as an alternative to poor performance management.Jack Heinemann, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890352022-09-01T20:22:37Z2022-09-01T20:22:37ZCriticisms of academic freedom miss the mark and risk the integrity of scholarship<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481144/original/file-20220825-22-3zaja5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=106%2C98%2C5095%2C3538&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While academic freedom itself might sound like a unique notion, granting special tools or rights to specific professions is rather commonplace.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the era of today’s heated culture wars, the concepts of academic freedom and freedom of expression have become increasingly conflated. Divisive political debates around <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-critical-race-theory-podcast-183973">critical race theory</a>, <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-passes-controversial-bill-to-protect-academic-freedom-1.5932032">Québec’s Bill 32</a> and talk of establishing “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/poilievre-promises-to-protect-freedom-of-speech-on-campus-appoint-a-free-speech-guardian">free speech guardians</a>” are just some recent examples. Academic freedom is being subsumed into the oftentimes polarizing rhetoric concerning what is commonly referred to as free speech. </p>
<p>But the two are different. Free speech is about the right to express one’s opinion, however accurate, false, good or bad it might be.</p>
<p>Academic freedom requires professional competency as determined by disciplinary communities. It is most succinctly defined by the <a href="https://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/A6520A9D-0A9A-47B3-B550-C006B5B224E7/0/1915Declaration.pdf">American Association of University Professors’ 1915 statement</a> as, “freedom of inquiry and research; freedom of teaching within the university or college; and freedom of extramural utterance and action.” </p>
<p>This is what makes laws like Québec’s Bill 32 problematic. It further <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-quebecs-bill-32-on-academic-freedom-and-why-does-it-matter-183122">confuses the distinction</a> between freedom of speech and academic freedom. Bill 32 is troubling because it grants the government special powers to dictate what happens in university classrooms. That <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-quebec-bill-on-academic-freedom-says-no-words-are-off-limits-in/">risks undermining</a> the very principles of academic freedom its proponents are purportedly trying to protect.</p>
<p>Academic freedom — and the corresponding protections of tenure — are often portrayed by conservative politicians and spokespersons as a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/03/14/overlooked-administrative-and-financial-benefits-tenure-opinion">luxury perk</a> demanded by professors looking for a cushy frill few others enjoy. That kind of narrative might be convenient fodder for populists trying to gain support for their own agendas, but is the need for academic freedom really all that unusual?</p>
<p>The truth is that, while academic freedom itself might sound like a unique notion, granting special tools or rights to specific professions is rather commonplace. </p>
<h2>Work-specific considerations are common</h2>
<p>In order to effectively carry out the duties, tasks and responsibilities of one’s employment, workers in many fields are granted special access or consideration to otherwise publicly restricted tools, working conditions or rights.</p>
<p>Take occupations like sport, law enforcement, farming, journalism and more. In sport, hockey players are permitted to hit each other, and even fight within the game without fear of being arrested. Similarly, boxers may punch each other. Police and other agents of the state are permitted to carry and, under certain conditions, discharge a variety of weapons which would otherwise be restricted or banned.
At the extreme end of this spectrum are of course soldiers who are not only permitted, but expected to shoot, kill or bomb so deemed enemies. </p>
<p>Farmers may access large quantities of fertilizer and other restricted materials that are <a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/explosives/restricted-components/9981#B1">otherwise regulated</a>. Medical personnel administer a variety of drugs that are tightly controlled. Elected federal and provincial members of Parliament and legislative assemblies may speak freely in their respective chambers <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_03_6-e.html">without fear of prosecution or civil liability</a> for any comments they make. Journalists <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2017_22/FullText.html">cannot be forced to reveal their sources</a>.</p>
<p>It doesn’t require much imagination to see how the jobs above, without special considerations, would quickly become absurd, inefficient and even dangerous. Consider how boxing without hitting becomes dancing. Farming would be much less productive absent often necessary herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers. Medicine far less effective and more deadly without access to lifesaving drugs and procedures. Journalists would be incapable of investigating the happenings of the day if their sources were not guaranteed protections.</p>
<p>In each case above, considerations are earned and granted in recognition that these working conditions are needed to carry out work effectively and efficiently. When placed in this context, academic freedom is neither unique nor unreasonable. </p>
<h2>Dangerous precedents</h2>
<p>Unless we want academic scholarship to suffer, academics must be free to research and speak without fearing they will upset powerful interests. If academics become unable to practise their scholarship because they might upset wealthy private donors, corporations, a populist mob or even the government of the day, it would signal a dangerous shift. </p>
<p>We need only look at <a href="https://www.caut.ca/issues-and-campaigns/academic-freedom/academic-freedom-cases/dr-nancy-olivieri">Nancy Olivieri’s case</a> to see what can go wrong when powerful interests violate a researcher’s academic freedom.</p>
<p>Dr. Olivieri raised concerns about an experimental drug she was researching to treat <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/thalassemia/facts.html">thalassemia</a>. She found that the drug, deferiprone, could potentially cause serious complications. The pharmaceutical company warned her not to publish her results and tried to silence her while the university and hospital failed to protect her. Despite the <a href="https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/on-academic-freedom-ft-drs-nancy-olivieri-and-marc-spooner/">lack of support and legal threats, Dr. Olivieri published her findings</a>. </p>
<p>If it were not for <a href="https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/awards-distinctions/honorary-doctorate/olivieri.html">her exemplary integrity and bravery</a>, patients involved in her trials, and countless others, may have been placed in harm’s way. </p>
<p>That is why academics and researchers require academic freedom. The need for academic freedom is not about elitist professors frivolously seeking privileges while breathing rarefied air in their ivory towers. It is simply the commonplace and understandable request of workers asking for the conditions they need to competently and effectively carry out their duties as expected, required and urgently needed by society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Spooner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Academic freedom is increasingly caught up in partisan debates around freedom of speech. But the idea behind it is not only vital but shared across many other professions.Marc Spooner, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831222022-06-01T19:29:17Z2022-06-01T19:29:17ZWhat is Québec’s Bill 32 on academic freedom, and why does it matter?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465847/original/file-20220528-25-dltnuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C116%2C5946%2C2550&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quebec's bill may be seen as part of on-going 'culture wars,' and alongside Ontario and Québec conservative governments' grandstanding about 'free speech' on university campuses.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of the controversy over the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-professor-uses-derogatory-word-1.6214139">suspension of a professor at the University of Ottawa for using the n-word in a 2020 lecture</a>, the Québec government hopes to pass Bill 32, <a href="http://m.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/projets-loi/projet-loi-32-42-2.html">a proposed act “respecting academic freedom in the university sector</a>.” </p>
<p>The bill was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/academic-freedom-bill-tabled-1.6410128">tabled April 6</a> and is under committee review.</p>
<p>In addition to undermining the autonomy of universities and faculty, and creating myriad implementation problems, the bill blurs the important distinctions between free expression and academic freedom. Most troubling, it signals that politicians are turning academic freedom into a political weapon.</p>
<p>All Canadians should be concerned about the shift in the meaning and control of academic freedom this bill could usher in. </p>
<h2>What’s the bill calling for?</h2>
<p>Bill 32 aims to define and control the principle of academic freedom that is now under the jurisdiction of universities. The bill redefines university <a href="http://www.assnat.qc.ca/Media/Process.aspx?MediaId=ANQ.Vigie.Bll.DocumentGenerique_181435en&process=Default&token=ZyMoxNwUn8ikQ+TRKYwPCjWrKwg+vIv9rjij7p3xLGTZDmLVSmJLoqe/vG7/YWzz">academic freedom</a> as, “the right of every person to engage freely and without doctrinal, ideological or moral constraint in an activity through which the person contributes, in their field of activity, to carrying out the mission of an educational institution.” </p>
<p>As scholars whose combined work engages with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108684804.005">politicization of language</a> and <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781442610163/multiculturalism-within-a-bilingual-framework/">language, race and belonging</a>, we share concerns with other anti-racist scholars that the bill prioritizes the right to speak without consideration for ethical ramifications. The bill would <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12120">overshadow issues of justice for racialized members of the academy</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, complex questions about <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-universities-not-safe-space-1.6285400">creating “safe spaces” or issuing “trigger warnings” in classrooms</a> are addressed within universities. Commentators argue that the bill <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/university-community-reacts-to-quebecs-new-academic-freedom-bill">“spells the end of ‘trigger warnings’ and "safe spaces’ in the classroom</a>.”</p>
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<h2>Rejected by students, university teachers</h2>
<p>The bill has sparked significant controversy and ignited criticism from students and university teachers for its <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/university-community-reacts-to-quebecs-new-academic-freedom-bill/">overreach into university autonomy</a>. </p>
<p>The bill’s Article 6 would give the minister of higher education the power <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/student-association-asks-quebec-to-scrap-bill-32-on-academic-freedom">to “order an educational institution to include, in its policy, any element indicated by the minister” or “have the necessary corrections made</a>.”</p>
<p>Québec student unions and <a href="https://www.caut.ca/node/11501">Canadian Association of University Teachers</a> have opposed the bill. The head of Concordia’s Black Student Union notes the bill would traumatize racialized students by reaching into university jurisdiction to permit derogatory language without concern for its effect, and calls it a “<a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-s-academic-freedom-bill-a-slap-in-the-face-says-concordia-black-student-union-1.5850864">slap in the face</a>.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-cant-be-separated-from-responsibility-175026">Academic freedom can't be separated from responsibility</a>
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<p>Given that the suspended professor did not work in Québec, one might wonder why the province has proposed the bill. In March 2021, when Danielle McCann, Québec’s minister of higher education, announced a committee to examine academic freedom, she said <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-announces-committee-to-examine-academic-freedom-censorship">recent events had convinced the government to take action</a>.</p>
<p>One might wonder how Premier François Legault’s <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-university-classrooms-are-not-safe-spaces-says-academic-freedom-committee-1.5706817">criticism of the suspension of a professor who did not work in Québec</a> has culminated in a bill that attempts to radically transform the definition and control of academic freedom. Perhaps the extent of this reaction reflects anxieties specific to Québec’s nationalist articulations of its identity.</p>
<h2>U.S. and Canadian contexts</h2>
<p>The bill imports American principles by blurring the distinction between academic freedom and free expression or free speech, similar to other Canadian conservative government manoeuvres, discussed below.</p>
<p>The Canadian and U.S. legal frameworks for academic freedom differ. One fundamental difference is that in Canada, Charter rights <a href="https://canliiconnects.org/en/summaries/31312">do not apply to universities</a>. By contrast, in the United States, the First Amendment, the source of equivalent rights, does apply to <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/speech-campus">public universities</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning First Amendment free speech rights have a <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/17/academic-freedom">long history</a> of including academic freedom. This connection is non-existent in Canada. </p>
<p>In Canada, academic freedom is <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29398/21395">grounded in collective agreements</a> or memoranda of understanding negotiated between faculty associations and university administrations. It usually includes the autonomy of the university and its faculty from outside pressures including provincial and federal governments. </p>
<p>In the U.S., <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t03.htm">the rate of unionization</a> at universities is far <a href="https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29398">lower than in Canada</a>, making collective agreements less viable as the guarantee of academic freedom. </p>
<p>The Alberta Court ruled that the Charter right to free expression applies to campus anti-abortion <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781487529314-015/pdf">protesters in Alberta</a> and that students at the University of Calgary were merely expressing themselves when they denigrated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12120">their professor on Facebook</a>.
But no court has ruled that the Charter applies to universities’ classrooms or university teaching.</p>
<h2>To further confuse matters</h2>
<p>But Bill 32 focuses not on freedom of speech, but on academic freedom. The only other province to legislate on issues concerning academic freedom to our knowledge is Manitoba. </p>
<p>Manitoba’s <a href="https://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/a006-3e.php">Advanced Education Administration Act</a> merely states that the minister responsible for post-secondary education, “respects the appropriate autonomy of educational institutions and the recognized principles of academic freedom.” </p>
<p>But the goal and functioning of Bill 32 is to define and control the principle of academic freedom (now under universities’ jurisdiction). </p>
<p>The Québec government claims it can do better than universities in protecting this core principle of academic freedom. More substantially, this bill politicizes complex questions of how professors do their work at the university.</p>
<h2>Ignores right to criticize government</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/university-community-reacts-to-quebecs-new-academic-freedom-bill/">Commentators have criticized the bill</a> for omitting what is usually considered a fundamental dimension, that is, the right for academics to criticize their own universities as well as government.</p>
<p>University collective agreements are clear in granting academic freedom to faculty members based on them having fulfilled years of education to become experts in their fields. </p>
<p>But the bill ignores these standard definitions of academic freedom and presents it as if it is like the right to free expression: universal, applicable to everyone regardless of their qualifications. </p>
<p>As American historian Joan Wallach Scott argues about the American right-wing: by “<a href="https://www.amacad.org/news/free-speech-and-academic-freedom">collapsing the distinction between academic freedom and free speech, they deny the authority of knowledge and of the teacher who purveys it</a>.”</p>
<h2>Potential problems with scope</h2>
<p>Since the bill does not restrict itself to academics but speaks of “the right of every person … in their field of activity,” concrete problems for implementation are evident. </p>
<p>For example, if a professor gives a student a C in a course, could this be challenged as restricting the student’s academic freedom from “doctrinal” constraint? </p>
<p>Could not the offence of plagiarism be argued as a “moral” constraint and thus against a student’s academic freedom? </p>
<h2>Joins Ontario and Alberta ‘culture wars’</h2>
<p>The purpose of this bill seems comparable to the influential statement issued by the <a href="https://freeexpression.uchicago.edu/">University of Chicago</a>, known as the <a href="https://provost.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/documents/reports/FOECommitteeReport.pdf">Chicago Principles of Free Expression</a>. Those principles nowhere mention academic freedom. But, they were also <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/university-chicago-we-don-t-condone-safe-spaces-or-trigger-n637721">the grounds for the university to speak against “trigger warnings” and the notion of the university as a “safe space.”</a> </p>
<p>The Chicago Principles have been adopted by many American universities, although not without <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/12/11/what-chicago-principles-miss-when-it-comes-free-speech-and-academic-freedom-opinion">controversy</a>. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.thestar.com/calgary/2019/05/06/alberta-and-ontario-premiers-campus-free-speech-policies-a-dog-whistle-blow-for-the-right-expert.html">Alberta Premier Jason Kenney</a> and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/develop-free-speech-policies-or-face-funding-cuts-ontario-tells-colleges-1.4074727?cache=lxaherxk%3FclipId%3D375756">Ontario Premier Doug Ford insisted</a> that universities in their respective provinces adopt freedom of speech policies, they referenced the Chicago Principles.</p>
<p>Québec’s bill may be seen as part of the on-going “culture wars,” along with Ford and Kenney’s grandstanding about free speech crises on university campuses.</p>
<p>As in those cases, maybe this is just political posturing <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-ucp-promises-threaten-academic-freedom-of-speech">with little genuine concern</a> for the quality of university education. </p>
<p>In sum, even if this bill is revised or fails, its very proposal signals a move towards using academic freedom as a political weapon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Ives is affiliated with the University of Winnipeg and is a representative-at-large to the council of the University of Winnipeg Faculty Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve Haque has received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for an Insight Development Grant on 'Reconciling Academic Freedom and Equity in Canada'
</span></em></p>In addition to undermining universities’ and faculty members’ autonomy, the bill blurs distinctions between free expression and academic freedom, and turns academic freedom into a political weapon.Peter Ives, Professor, Political Science, University of WinnipegEve Haque, Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1815942022-04-26T18:11:41Z2022-04-26T18:11:41ZWho will call out the misogyny and abuse undermining women’s academic freedom in our universities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459201/original/file-20220421-11378-phqaml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3512%2C2275&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Threats, intimidation and misogyny have long been a reality for <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-12/expect-rape-threats,-gillard-warns-female-politicians/7925906">women in public life</a> around the world, and the pandemic appears to have amplified this toxic reality. </p>
<p>Aotearoa New Zealand is led by one of the world’s best-known female prime ministers, Jacinda Ardern, and was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-new-zealand-was-the-first-country-where-women-won-the-right-to-vote-103219">first country in the world</a> to grant all women the right to vote. </p>
<p>Yet even here today, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/here-be-trolls-new-zealands-female-politicians-battle-rising-tide-of-misogyny">attempts to silence, diminish and demean</a> the prime minister, female MPs and other prominent women have plumbed new depths, leading to calls for more robust policing of violent online and offline behaviour.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the phenomenon extends well beyond <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/300556540/disgusting-abuse-targeted-at-women-in-wellington-local-government">elected representatives</a> and <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/128285699/bloomfield-we-absolutely-need-to-do-something-about-gendered-online-abuse">public health professionals</a> into most workplaces, including academia. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10734-021-00787-4.pdf">Women working in universities</a>, including those in positions of academic leadership, are also routinely subjected to <a href="https://harassment.thedlrgroup.com/peer-reviewed-publications/">online vitriol</a> intended to shut them down – and thus to prevent them exercising their academic freedom to probe, question and test orthodox ways of making sense of the world.</p>
<p>One of the commonest defences of abusive or threatening language (online or not) is an appeal to everyone’s right to free speech. And this has echoes within universities, too, when academic freedom becomes a testing ground of what is acceptable and what isn’t.</p>
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<h2>A duty to call it out</h2>
<p>The international evidence indicates that almost all of this behaviour <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/vio.2017.0056">comes from men</a>, some of them <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10734-021-00787-4.pdf">colleagues</a> or <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/metoo-sexual-harassment-students-can-no-longer-be-ignored">students</a> of the women concerned.</p>
<p>The abuse comes in various forms (such as <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/124724989/siouxsie-and-the-banshees">trolling</a> and <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/threatened-scholars-online-harassment-risks-academic-freedom">rape or death threats</a>) and takes place in a variety of settings, including <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-female-academics-fighting-to-make-higher-education-a-safe-space-for-women_uk_5ce7a016e4b0cce67c888dbd">conferences</a>. It is enabled by, among other things, the hierarchical nature of universities, in which power is stratified and <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/academia-has-a-harassment-problem-statscan-study-finds/">unequally distributed</a>, including on the basis of gender.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-differences-between-free-speech-hate-speech-and-academic-freedom-and-they-matter-124764">There are differences between free speech, hate speech and academic freedom – and they matter</a>
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<p>As male academics we have an obligation not just to call out these sorts of behaviour but also to identify some of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-abuse-harassment-and-discrimination-rife-among-australian-academics-97856">corrosive consequences</a> of the misogyny directed against women academics, wherever they may work. </p>
<p>We need to use our own academic freedom to assess what can happen to that of academic women when digital misogyny passes unchecked.</p>
<h2>Whose freedom to speak?</h2>
<p><a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/22-08-2019/enough-is-enough-nz-universities-need-to-reckon-with-rife-sexual-misconduct">Misogyny in university settings</a> takes place in a particular context: universities have a <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/whole.html#LMS202276">statutory obligation</a> to serve as producers and repositories of knowledge and expertise, and to act as society’s “conscience and critic”.</p>
<p>Academic freedom is what enables staff and students to carry out the work through which these obligations are met. This <a href="https://teu.ac.nz/academic-freedom-aotearoa/what-academic-freedom-means-in-contemporary-aotearoa/">specific type of freedom</a> is a means to various ends, including testing and contesting perceived truths, advancing the boundaries of knowledge and talking truth to power.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-cant-be-separated-from-responsibility-175026">Academic freedom can't be separated from responsibility</a>
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<p>It is intended to serve the public good, and must be exercised in the context of the “highest ethical standards” and be open to public scrutiny.</p>
<p>A great deal has been written about threats to academic freedom: intrusive or risk averse <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-fundamental-principles-for-upholding-freedom-of-speech-on-campus-104690">university managers</a>, the pressures to commercialise universities’ operations, and governments bent on surveilling and stifling internal dissent are the usual suspects.</p>
<p>But when women academics are subjected to online misogyny, which is a common response when they exercise academic freedom, we are talking about a different kind of threat. </p>
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<h2>Betrayal of academic freedom</h2>
<p>The misogynists seek to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0894439319865518">silence</a>, shut down, diminish and demean; to ridicule on the basis of gender, and to deride scholarship that doesn’t align with their own <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/31/misgendering-students-is-not-academic-freedom-its-an-abuse-power/">preconceptions of gender and body type</a>.</p>
<p>Their behaviour is neither casual nor <a href="https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/misogyny-and-misinformation:-an-analysis-of-gendered-disinformation-tactics-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/">accidental</a>. As journalist Michelle Duff put it, it is <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300561708/why-escalating-misogynistic-abuse-of-jacinda-ardern-is-a-national-security-issue">intended to intimidate</a> “as part of a concentrated effort to suppress women’s participation in public and political life”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-pretty-communist-to-jabcinda-whats-behind-the-vitriol-directed-at-jacinda-ardern-179094">From ‘pretty communist’ to ‘Jabcinda’ – what’s behind the vitriol directed at Jacinda Ardern?</a>
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<p>Its aim is to achieve the obverse of the purpose of academic freedom: to maintain an unequal status quo rather than change it.</p>
<p>It is to the credit of women academics that the misogynists frequently fail. But sometimes the hostility does have <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/threatened-scholars-online-harassment-risks-academic-freedom">a chilling effect</a>. For a woman to exercise her academic freedom when she is the target of online threats to rape or kill requires considerable bravery.</p>
<p>Women who continue to test perceived truths, advance the boundaries of knowledge and speak truth to power under such conditions are academic exemplars. They are contributing to the public good at considerable personal cost.</p>
<h2>‘Whaddarya?’</h2>
<p>The online misogyny directed at women academics is taking place in a broader context in which violent language targeting individuals and minority groups is becoming increasingly <a href="https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.auckland.ac.nz/dist/d/75/files/2017/01/working-paper-disinformation.pdf">graphic, normalised and visible</a>.</p>
<p>We do not believe the misogynistic “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1367549420951574">righteous outrage</a>” directed at academic women is justified under the statutory underpinnings of freedom of speech.</p>
<p>Freedom of speech – within or beyond a university – is not absolute, and to the extent that it is invoked to cloak violent rhetoric against women, existing constraints on that freedom (which are better thought of as protections for the targets of misogyny) need strengthening.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-academic-freedom-mean-in-practice-why-the-siouxsie-wiles-and-shaun-hendy-employment-case-matters-174695">What does 'academic freedom' mean in practice? Why the Siouxsie Wiles and Shaun Hendy employment case matters</a>
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<p>Men who engage in online misogyny almost always speak from an (unacknowledged) position of privilege. Moreover, by hiding their sense of entitlement behind core democratic notions, their self-indulgence does all of us a disfavour.</p>
<p>With academic freedom comes the moral responsibility to challenge misogyny and not stay silent. What so many women across New Zealand’s tertiary sector are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17439884.2021.1878218?journalCode=cjem20">subject to</a> poses a challenge to men everywhere.</p>
<p>The kind of conduct our women colleagues are routinely subjected to is the sort of behaviour at the heart of Greg McGee’s seminal critique of masculinity and masculine insecurity in New Zealand, the play Foreskin’s Lament. In the final scene of the play, the main character stares out at the audience and asks: “Whaddarya, whaddarya, whaddarya?”</p>
<p>He might have been asking the question of every man, including those of us who work in universities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With academic freedom comes moral responsibility. Men within New Zealand universities – and beyond – must challenge misogynistic abuse of their women colleagues and not stay silent.Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey UniversityAndrew Dickson, Senior lecturer, Massey UniversityBevan Erueti, Senior Lecturer - Health Promotion/Associate Dean - Maori, Massey UniversityGlenn Banks, Professor of Geography and Head of School, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey UniversityJohn O'Neill, Head of Institute of Education te Kura o Te Mātauranga, Massey UniversityRoger McEwan, Senior Lecturer, Massey UniversityTony Carusi, Senior Lecturer of Educational Studies, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1750262022-04-04T13:29:10Z2022-04-04T13:29:10ZAcademic freedom can’t be separated from responsibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453622/original/file-20220322-27-88ve7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C142%2C4985%2C3360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More discussion is needed about how power shapes access to learning and speaking in a university environment. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Academic freedom has become <a href="https://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/crisis-academic-freedom-canada-address/">a polarizing topic</a>.
Recent issues at the University of Ottawa expose ongoing challenges of balancing academic freedom with university community members’ rights to respectful and safe classroom and campus spaces.</p>
<p>In October 2021, <a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/en/committee-academic-freedom">the university’s Committee on Academic Freedom</a> issued a report that examined academic freedom, freedom of expression, equity, diversity and inclusion — and the legal aspects of these issues.</p>
<p>This work was set in motion after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-professor-derogatory-word-freedom-of-academic-1.6237256">controversy surrounding a professor who used a derogatory word for Black people in class</a>. </p>
<p>The committee’s report, and wider <a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2022/02/11/ideacide-left-wing-censorship-a-danger.html">commentary about</a> <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-university-of-ottawa-throws-academic-freedom-under-the-bus">the University of Ottawa controversy</a>, point to the need for greater public discussion to understand how academic freedom relates to responsibility. </p>
<p>As a PhD researcher who examines structural and systematic racism embedded in social institutions, including in education systems, I believe it’s critical to consider failures to understand academic freedom as an ethical concept, rather than <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42982029">simply a neutral objective standard</a>. </p>
<h2>Role of responsibilities, ethics in freedom</h2>
<p>At universities, faculty collective agreements <a href="https://www2.uottawa.ca/about-us/policies-regulations/policy-121-statement-free-expression">and university policies</a> spell out frameworks for academic freedom.</p>
<p>But as University of Ottawa’s Committee on Academic Freedom noted, universities’ definitions and policies vary, sometimes significantly, in the ways they spell out wider rights, responsibilities, obligations and limits — or how <a href="https://www.wlu.ca/about/discover-laurier/freedom-of-expression/assets/resources/the-intersection-of-freedom-of-expression-and-equity-diversity-and-inclusion.html">academic freedom relates with equity</a>, diversity or ethics.</p>
<p>The University of British Columbia distinguishes <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art2b.html">between freedom of expression</a> — protected in Canada under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — and academic freedom in an FAQ about these issues on the university website: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Most significantly, academic freedom is not a legal right, but rather a right or a privilege bestowed by an institution of higher learning. It might best be <a href="https://academic.ubc.ca/academic-freedom/frequently-asked-questions">construed as an ethical right, insofar as it serves good ends: the advancement and dissemination of knowledge</a>.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When speakers seek to responsibly disseminate knowledge, they must be aware of who they’re speaking to, and how what they’re saying may resonate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tower is seen on a university campus as students walk by." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453656/original/file-20220322-17-3sgmfk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Words have effects far beyond the speaker, and speakers need to consider how what they say will be heard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Power and privilege</h2>
<p>In October 2020, after the University of Ottawa classroom incident, Québec Premier <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-minister-wades-into-n-word-controversy-at-ottawa-university">François Legault</a> criticized the university for suspending <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-professor-uses-derogatory-word-1.6214139">the professor</a> at the centre of the issue. </p>
<p>As a fully bilingual university close to the Québec border, the University of Ottawa has close connections with the province.</p>
<p>At a news conference, the premier said, “I don’t think there should be banned words,” and “It’s as if [the university] has … censure police.” </p>
<p>The premier’s comments illustrated power and privilege. Their wider related effects, including <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-quebecs-commission-on-academic-freedom-takes-a-courageous-stand">discussion around Québec’s commission to study academic freedom</a>, have added to the division among professors and students at the University of Ottawa. </p>
<h2>Harms to students</h2>
<p>In its report, the University of Ottawa’s Academic Freedom Committee made several recommendations, including: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>further work to ensure the university community has a wider understanding of principles of academic freedom; </p></li>
<li><p>clear criteria and mechanisms are needed for making complaints; </p></li>
<li><p>university administration should establish an action plan to fight racism, discrimination and cyberbullying;</p></li>
<li><p>affirming “the need to protect academic freedom and freedom of expression in fulfilment of its teaching and research mission.” The committee said it’s against “institutional or self-censorship that is apt to compromise the dissemination of knowledge or is motivated by fear of public repudiation.”</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I’m specifically concerned about what this last point will mean, especially given that the report’s recommendations don’t address how professors need to demonstrate self-awareness of their own social positions in how they exercise responsibility. </p>
<p>More discussion is needed about how power shapes identities and access to learning.
Communities also need to consider <a href="https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/education/2021-11-04/polemiques-a-l-universite-d-ottawa/il-faut-proteger-la-liberte-academique-conclut-le-rapport-bastarache.php">students who experience moral injury</a> when people use irresponsible language and are unaccountable for their privilege.</p>
<p>In June 2021, the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Professors & Librarians Caucus Working Group at the University of Ottawa made a submission to Committee on Academic Freedom. It <a href="https://bipoccaucusuottawa.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/example-post-2">stressed that notions of academic freedom cannot be divorced from respect for dignity and integrity in the classroom</a>. This caucus also <a href="https://www.change.org/p/statement-of-bipoc-caucus-at-the-university-of-ottawa/u/28173462">made ample suggestions about practical ways to urgently tackle systemic racism</a> at the university. This is necessary for creating safer spaces for all community members.</p>
<h2>Confronting ‘colonial nostalgia’</h2>
<p>Academics concerned about academic freedom and the quality of education note that academic freedom needs to be concerned with the quality of speech and the context in which it’s uttered. </p>
<p>As interdisciplinary scholar <a href="https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1715">Farhana Sultana</a> argues, some academics participate in the erosion of academic integrity when they apply “scholarly” veneer to hateful ideologies. She writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“At a time when there are concerted efforts to decolonize academia, there is concurrent rise of colonial nostalgia and white supremacy among some academics, who are supported by and end up lending support to the escalating far-right movements.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To fully and freely engage in dialogue in the classrooms, professors must recognize different aspects of their identities such as race, gender, sexuality, language — and consider how what they say may resonate among varied groups. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students are seen walking in a university hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453704/original/file-20220322-14892-1pjdzeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s possible to address difficult issues in campus classrooms in respectful ways when instructors are familiar with teaching practices that foster inclusion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Safe spaces, brave spaces</h2>
<p>Educators seeking to balance the need for sincere and challenging dialogue and responsibility have explored the <a href="https://styluspub.presswarehouse.com/browse/book/9781579229740/The-Art-of-Effective-Facilitation">notion of moving from safe spaces to “brave spaces</a>.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/4-ways-white-people-can-be-accountable-for-addressing-anti-black-racism-at-universities-164983">4 ways white people can be accountable for addressing anti-Black racism at universities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the article, “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue Around Diversity and Social Justice,” student affairs educators Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens define safe space as “a learning environment that allows students to engage with one another over controversial issues with honesty, sensitivity and respect.” They also explore how the notion of safety can become conflated with comfort. </p>
<p>Arao and Clemens argue that education about difficult issues may be shocking and uncomfortable, but it’s possible to do so in respectful ways through social justice teaching practices that foster diversity and inclusion. Other researchers <a href="https://www.naspa.org/files/dmfile/Policy_and_Practice_No_2_Safe_Brave_Spaces.pdf">have developed these ideas further</a>. </p>
<p>There is an ethical responsibility by professors to provide space for challenging discussions. This necessarily includes not perpetrating old structures that were built on casting out marginalized groups. Professors have a responsibility not to humiliate racialized students or use racist or discriminatory language. </p>
<h2>New teaching, training standards needed</h2>
<p>Standards of ethical and professional behaviour have progressed, and the practice of academic freedom should adapt. </p>
<p>As anti-racist and feminist scholar bell hooks also argued, what’s needed is learning how to teach <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-to-Transgress-Education-as-the-Practice-of-Freedom/hooks/p/book/9780415908085">students to transgress against racial and class boundaries that promote white supremacy or a hierarchy of human dignity</a>. </p>
<p>I remain hopeful that with ongoing collaborative engagement from administrators and policy-makers, change will occur in our educational system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karine Coen-Sanchez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When speakers seek to responsibly disseminate knowledge they must be aware of their audience and how what they are saying may resonate.Karine Coen-Sanchez, PhD candidate, Sociological and Anthropological Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1800062022-04-01T12:58:49Z2022-04-01T12:58:49ZThe war in Ukraine ruins Russia’s academic ties with the West<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455350/original/file-20220330-30357-6hu86l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5485%2C3670&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. universities are cutting ties with their Russian counterparts, such as Moscow State University, shown here. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/students-walk-towards-the-main-building-of-the-moscow-state-news-photo/1231041466?adppopup=true">Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Since Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-orders-military-operations-ukraine-demands-kyiv-forces-surrender-2022-02-24/">invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022</a>, universities across Europe and the United States have <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/u7secretariat/news/u7+-statement-on-the-war-in-ukraine.html">condemned the war</a> and cut ties with Russia altogether. In the following Q&A, Arik Burakovsky, an <a href="https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/research/experts/arik-burakovsky">expert on relations</a> between the U.S. and Russia, shines light on the future of cooperation between Russia and the West in the realm of higher education.</em></p>
<h2>What kinds of ties have existed between Western and Russian universities?</h2>
<p>Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, Western and Russian higher education institutions have formed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12874-6_7">hundreds of partnerships</a> and <a href="https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/universities-as-actors-and-instruments-in-diplomacy-the-academic-soft-power-potential/">cooperated on different initiatives</a>. These activities have included academic exchanges, curriculum development, joint online courses and collaborative research projects.</p>
<p>Russia has worked over the past two decades to make its universities <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/russias-5-100-project-working">more prestigious</a>. The Russian government <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43580583">internationalized and updated</a> its higher education system. This meant moving away from Soviet traditions and <a href="https://russiancouncil.ru/en/analytics-and-comments/analytics/russia-and-the-bologna-process-20-years-later/">adopting European higher education standards</a>, particularly transitioning from the one-tier, five-year “specialist” degree to the two-tier “bachelor-master” system.</p>
<p>In their <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9w65m2fj">desire for global competitiveness</a>, Russian universities built <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2020.1789938">international branch campuses</a> throughout former Soviet countries. They also offered more opportunities for <a href="https://www.economics-sociology.eu/files/ES_Vol8_1_Stukalova.pdf">Russian students to study abroad</a> and attracted more international students. The <a href="https://www.rbth.com/business/2016/12/12/how-russian-universities-are-profiting-from-foreign-students_655731">number of foreign students in Russia</a> nearly tripled, from 100,900 in the 2004-2005 academic year to 282,900 a decade later.</p>
<p>Russian universities have opened <a href="https://www.rbth.com/education/331792-universities-masters-english">more courses taught in English</a> and established joint- and dual-degree programs with Western universities in a variety of disciplines. For example, the <a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/06/22/regulators-have-revoked-their-accreditation-of-the-moscow-school-of-social-and-economic-sciences-one-of-russia-s-last-major-private-colleges">Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences</a> offers joint bachelor’s and master’s degree diplomas with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.</p>
<h2>What have these relationships produced?</h2>
<p>Western and Russian students have learned about each other’s <a href="https://www.rbth.com/education/327799-7-reasons-to-study-in-russia">cultures, languages and societies</a>. Scientists in Russia and the West have worked together on research projects related to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russian-space-chief-says-rocket-launches-europe-will-be-replaced-2022-03-24/">outer space exploration</a>, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cern-suspends-collaborations-with-russia/">particle physics</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-war-on-ukraine-upends-arctic-climate-change-research-11648299602?mod=science_list_pos2">climate change</a>, <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/it-looks-iron-curtain-2-arctic-research-russia-curtailed-after-ukraine-invasion">biodiversity in the Arctic</a> and many other areas. </p>
<p>However, as geopolitical tensions grew over time, the Russian authorities became apprehensive about what they believed to be efforts “to educate young people in a pro-Western way, <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/30/russia-deports-us-college-professor-after-bard-hit-with-undesirable-label-reports-a75697">form a protest electorate</a> and inculcate a hostile ideology.” Subsequently, Putin began to stifle <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/russian-foreign-agent-rules-are-chilling-academic-freedom">international academic bonds</a> by imposing <a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/08/14/russia-is-imposing-new-restrictions-on-communication-with-foreign-researchers-here-s-what-we-know-about-those-rules-so-far">restrictions</a> on them.</p>
<p>Russia has dissolved academic connections with the West through legislation on so-called “<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/russian-foreign-agent-rules-are-chilling-academic-freedom">foreign agents</a>” and “<a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-lawmakers-bill-undesirable-organizations/31298911.html">undesirable organizations</a>.” The government ramped up scrutiny of foreign funding and outlawed dozens of Western think tanks, charities, and universities that previously had worked in Russia. These banned organizations include the <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-labels-atlantic-council-policy-center-in-washington-undesirable-/30075730.html">Atlantic Council</a>, a nonpartisan international affairs think tank in Washington, D.C., and <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/06/22/russia-blacklists-bard-college-as-undesirable-org-a74290">Bard College</a>, a private liberal arts college in New York state.</p>
<p>In 2021, Russia <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/06/01/russia-bans-unauthorized-foreign-influence-educational-activities-a74065">banned all educational activities</a> not approved by the government. This includes cooperation with foreign universities. Before Russian academics meet with foreign scholars, they must <a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/08/14/russia-is-imposing-new-restrictions-on-communication-with-foreign-researchers-here-s-what-we-know-about-those-rules-so-far">notify the government</a>.</p>
<p>In my work at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University since 2017, I have managed collaborative teaching, research and academic exchanges with universities and think tanks in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok. I have seen students and experts in the two countries <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/11/21/what-i-learned-about-the-russian-american-relationship-last-week/">gain mutual understanding</a> of international affairs by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/30/spoiler-alerts-went-to-moscow-and-all-you-get-are-these-lousy-observations/">sharing diverse perspectives</a> and learning from one another. </p>
<p>These interactions were formally ended by the university where I work on March 15, 2022, as they are now considered “<a href="https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2022/03/17/breaking-fletcher-school-severs-relationship-with-two-russian-universities-in-response-to-war-against-ukraine/">morally unacceptable</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man walks down a street covered in rubble and debris." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455623/original/file-20220331-25-35uvvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Western universities have condemned Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-damaged-building-following-a-shelling-in-ukraines-news-photo/1238903495?adppopup=true">Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Does Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threaten these relationships?</h2>
<p>Yes. The Ukrainian government has <a href="https://www.cara.ngo/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/220305-Appeal-of-Ukrainian-Universities-and-Minister-of-Education.pdf">called for an academic boycott</a> of Russia. Many colleges have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-education-moscow-e35900391f7ea2e87d842cf3d2c70296">pulled students out of Russia</a>. They have also <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/mit-ends-skoltech-partnership-over-ukraine-war">paused scientific cooperation</a>, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/09/colleges-cut-financial-ties-russia">cut financial ties</a> and <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russia-links-scrutiny-adds-donations-pressure-uk-campuses">increased scrutiny of donations from Russia</a>. These moves are all part of a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/10/1085792668/colleges-russia-ukraine">global wave of condemnation</a> against the invasion.</p>
<p>While many academic leaders have <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/news/2022/03/06/u-s-colleges-move-cautiously-in-cutting-ties-to-russia">urged caution</a> about moving too quickly, some American and European universities have already <a href="https://thepienews.com/news/universities-divided-on-cutting-ties-with-russia-as-denmark-suspends-institutional-cooperation/">frozen their relationships</a> with Russia completely. Universities in <a href="https://sciencebusiness.net/network-updates/university-tartu-estonian-universities-halt-cooperation-russian-and-belarusian">Estonia</a> and <a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/210264/belgian-universities-suspend-links-with-russian-universities">Belgium</a> collectively decided to suspend all ties with Russia.</p>
<p>The Massachusetts Institute of Technology ended its <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/02/25/mit-abandons-russian-high-tech-campus-partnership-in-light-of-ukraine-invasion">high-tech teaching and research cooperation</a> with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow on Feb. 25. The partnership, which began in 2010, had been bolstered by a <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/national-news/2020/02/18/mit-extends-russian-tech-partnership-despite-scrutiny-from-feds">five-year extension and multimillion-dollar funding</a> in 2019. Yet the program had been <a href="https://sciencebusiness.net/news/mit-cuts-ties-russian-academic-partner-over-ukraine-war">mired in controversy</a> since 2018 over sponsorship from <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0338">sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg</a>.</p>
<p>Many European governments, such as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/germany-halts-academic-collaboration-russia-over-ukraine-war">Germany</a>, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/dutch-universities-freeze-russia-relations-over-ukraine-war">the Netherlands</a>, <a href="https://sciencebusiness.net/news/denmark-tells-universities-suspend-all-cooperation-russia">Denmark</a>, <a href="https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2022/03/13/913261-sovmestnih-nauchno-obrazovatelnih">Finland, Poland, Norway</a>, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/dutch-universities-freeze-russia-relations-over-ukraine-war">Latvia and Lithuania</a>, have asked their universities to cut ties with Russia entirely. The United Kingdom announced on March 27 that it will <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-cuts-most-russian-research-ties-and-funds-ukrainian-refugees">halt tens of millions of pounds in funding</a> for all research projects with links to Russia. </p>
<h2>What are the reasons given for and against severing ties?</h2>
<p>Proponents claim these actions are needed to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00601-w">take a moral stance</a> against Putin. They also say they are meant to <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/harvard-professor-calls-on-mass-universities-to-sever-ties-with-russia/2668223/">fight corruption</a>, reduce the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/why-russian-spies-really-like-american-universities">risks of spying</a>, block <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/russian-universities-must-suffer-tougher-sanctions">Putin’s propaganda machine</a> and prevent <a href="https://apnews.com/article/bc0d920ef35d4c8296f79cebb1a9bd6f">technology theft</a>. Chris Philp, the United Kingdom’s minister for technology and the digital economy, says he does not see how “anyone <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cut-ties-russian-universities-says-uk-government-minister">in good conscience</a> can collaborate with Russian universities.”</p>
<p>Opponents argue that by shutting out Russian academia, the West is <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/west-should-not-freeze-out-russian-academics">alienating Russian students and scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/freeze-russia-relations-end-era-science-cooperation">setting a bad precedent</a> for international academic cooperation broadly. They maintain that <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-ukraine-dilemma-u-s-colleges-debate-whether-to-sever-or-sustain-ties-with-russia">scientific openness</a> promotes democracy and human rights, helps <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universities-need-to-open-the-lines-of-communication-with-russians-not-close-them-179080">counter misinformation</a> inside Russia and encourages conflict resolution.</p>
<p>Lawrence Bacow, president of Harvard University, emphasizes the value of <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academic-ties-especially-important-amid-global-tensions-bacow">academic diplomacy</a>. He points out that “individuals are not necessarily responsible for the policies of their governments.” On March 9, the university’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies <a href="https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/statements-russias-war-against-ukraine">suspended its relationships</a> with Russian universities whose administrations expressed support for the war.</p>
<h2>How will these severed ties affect higher education in Russia?</h2>
<p>By closing lines of communication with Russia, Western universities may be <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russian-academics-boycott-support/">unwittingly aiding</a> Putin’s efforts to isolate Russian students and academics. Putin wants to convince <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/15/russia-students-putin-opposition/">young people</a> and academics, who <a href="https://cepa.org/russian-youth-and-civic-engagement/">tend to be more pro-Western</a> and <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/russia-academic-freedom-threat-precarity/">anti-authoritarian</a> than the rest of the population, that there is no hope for them now that they are alone. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.forbes.ru/forbeslife/459339-izolacia-ot-mirovogo-soobsestva-i-utecka-mozgov-kakoe-budusee-zdet-rossijskuu-nauku">Russian researchers say</a> they increasingly feel disconnected from the West and disheartened about the future of Russian science. The Russian government declared on March 22 that it will <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russia-bars-academics-international-conferences">bar its researchers from participating</a> in international conferences.</p>
<h2>Are Russian academics free to condemn the invasion?</h2>
<p>A climate of fear reigns over people in Russia who oppose the war. A new law punishes the spread of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-introduce-jail-terms-spreading-fake-information-about-army-2022-03-04/">intentionally “fake” information</a> about the military with up to 15 years in prison. In his televised speech on March 16, Putin vowed to cleanse Russia of pro-Western “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/world/europe/putin-russia-ukraine-protests.html">scum and traitors</a>,” setting the stage for a severe domestic crackdown.</p>
<p>Russian scholars are unable to criticize the invasion without risking employment terminations, fines and jail sentences. Saint Petersburg State University has <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/09/russias-oldest-university-to-expel-students-detained-at-anti-war-protests-kommersant-a76838">expelled 13 students</a> who were detained at anti-war protests. While <a href="https://www.rsr-online.ru/news/2022-god/obrashchenie-rossiyskogo-soyuza-rektorov1/">more than 700 government-appointed Russian university presidents</a> issued a statement of support for the “special military operation” in Ukraine, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/science/physics-cern-russia.html">almost 8,000 Russian scholars</a> voiced their opposition to the war in an open letter condemning the hostilities.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60697763">Hundreds of thousands of members</a> of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/17/opinion/russian-migrants-putin-war-ukraine.html">Russia’s liberal intelligentsia and political opposition</a> fled the country in the wake of the war. They are afraid of political persecution and conscription. As <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/no-future-us-left-russia-say-fleeing-academics">room for free speech rapidly closes</a>, some universities abroad have opened temporary teaching and research positions for <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/western-nations-cut-ties-russian-science-even-some-projects-try-remain-neutral">Russian scholars in search of refuge</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arik Burakovsky works for The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He receives funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York.</span></em></p>Decades of collaboration between Western and Russian universities have come to a halt because of the war in Ukraine. An expert on U.S.-Russia relations explains what’s at stake.Arik Burakovsky, Assistant Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803192022-03-31T06:04:19Z2022-03-31T06:04:19ZUniversities must act to prevent espionage and foreign interference, but our national laws still threaten academic freedom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455441/original/file-20220331-24-thus03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/international+research">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security released its much anticipated <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024611/toc_pdf/InquiryintonationalsecurityrisksaffectingtheAustralianhighereducationandresearchsector.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">report</a> on national security threats affecting the higher education and research sector. </p>
<p>The 171-page report found the sector is a target for foreign powers using “the full set of tools” against Australia, which can undermine our sovereignty and threaten academic freedom. It made 27 recommendations to “harden the operating environment to deny adversaries the ability to engage in the national security risks in the sector”.</p>
<p>The committee’s recommendations, when correctly implemented, will go a long way towards combating the threat of espionage and foreign interference. But they are not enough to protect academic freedom. This is because the <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UQLawJl/2019/6.pdf">laws</a> that make espionage and foreign interference a crime could capture legitimate research endeavours. </p>
<h2>National security risks to higher education and research</h2>
<p>The joint committee <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024611/toc_pdf/InquiryintonationalsecurityrisksaffectingtheAustralianhighereducationandresearchsector.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">found</a> there are several national security threats to the higher education and research sector. Most significant are <a href="https://www.asio.gov.au/counter-espionage.html">foreign interference</a> against students and staff, <a href="https://www.asio.gov.au/counter-espionage.html">espionage</a> and data theft. This includes theft via talent recruitment programs where Australian academics working on sensitive technologies are recruited to work at foreign institutions. </p>
<p>These threats have been occurring through cyber attacks and human means, including actors working in Australia covertly on behalf of a foreign government.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kylie-moore-gilbert-is-one-of-hundreds-of-victims-of-state-attacks-on-academic-freedom-151088">Kylie Moore-Gilbert is one of hundreds of victims of state attacks on academic freedom</a>
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<p>Foreign adversaries <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024611/toc_pdf/InquiryintonationalsecurityrisksaffectingtheAustralianhighereducationandresearchsector.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">may target information on research</a> that can be commercialised or used for national gain purposes. The kind of information targeted is not limited to military or defence, but includes valuable technologies or information in any domain such as as agriculture, medicine, energy and manufacturing.</p>
<h2>What did the committee recommend?</h2>
<p>The committee <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024611/toc_pdf/InquiryintonationalsecurityrisksaffectingtheAustralianhighereducationandresearchsector.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">stated</a> that “awareness, acknowledgement and genuine proactive measures” are the next steps academic institutions must take to degrade the corrosive effects of these national security risks. </p>
<p>Of its 27 recommendations, the committee made four “headline” recommendations. These include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A university-wide campaign of active transparency about the national security risks (overseen by the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/guidelines-counter-foreign-interference-australian-university-sector/university-foreign-interference-taskforce">University Foreign Interference Taskforce</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>adherence to the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/guidelines-counter-foreign-interference-australian-university-sector">taskforce</a> guidelines by universities. These include having frameworks for managing national security risks and implementing a cybersecurity strategy</p></li>
<li><p>introducing training on national security issues for staff and students</p></li>
<li><p>guidance for universities on how to implement penalties for foreign interference activities on campus.</p></li>
</ol>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1508603043738124292"}"></div></p>
<p>Other recommendations include creation of a mechanism to allow students to anonymously report instances of foreign interference on campus and diversification of the international student population.</p>
<h2>What about academic freedom?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">Espionage</a> makes it a crime to deal with information on behalf of, or to communicate to, a foreign principal (such as a foreign government or a person acting on their behalf). The person may also need to intend to prejudice, or be reckless in prejudicing, Australia’s national security. </p>
<p>In the context of the espionage and foreign interference offences, “<a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">national security</a>” means defence of Australia. It also means Australia’s international relations with other countries. “<a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">Prejudice</a>” means something more than mere embarrassment. </p>
<p>So, an academic might intend to prejudice Australia’s national security where they engage in a research project that results in criticism of Australian military or intelligence policies or practices; or catalogues Australian government misconduct in its dealings with other countries. Because “<a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">foreign principals</a>” are part of the larger global audience, <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/3898598/01-Ananian-Welsh,-Kendall-and-Murray-764.pdf">publication</a> of these research results could be an espionage offence. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-is-paramount-for-universities-they-can-do-more-to-protect-it-from-chinas-interference-163647">Academic freedom is paramount for universities. They can do more to protect it from China's interference</a>
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<p>The academic may even have committed an offence when teaching students about this research in class (because Australia has a large proportion of <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/024611/toc_pdf/InquiryintonationalsecurityrisksaffectingtheAustralianhighereducationandresearchsector.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">international students</a>, some of whom may be acting on behalf of foreign actors), communicating with colleagues working overseas (because foreign public universities could be “<a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">foreign principals</a>”), or simply engaging in preliminary research (because it is an offence to do things to <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">prepare for espionage</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455442/original/file-20220331-24-x0hma8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Even communicating about research with overseas colleagues could fall foul of espionage and foreign interference laws.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-scientists-studying-reaction-some-chemical-405375142">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">Foreign interference</a> makes it a crime to engage in covert or deceptive conduct on behalf of a foreign principal where the person intends to (or is reckless as to whether they will) influence a political or governmental process, or prejudice Australia’s national security. The covert or deceptive nature of the conduct could be in relation to <em>any part</em> of the person’s conduct.</p>
<p>So, an academic working for a foreign public university (a “foreign principal”, even if the country is one of our allies) may inadvertently commit the crime of foreign interference where they run a research project that involves anonymous survey responses to collect information to advocate for Australian electoral law reform. The anonymous nature of the survey may be sufficient for the academic’s conduct to be “covert”. </p>
<p>Because it is a crime to <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1995115/sch1.html">prepare for foreign interference</a>, the academic may also have committed an offence by simply taking any steps towards publication of the research results (including preliminary research or writing a first draft).</p>
<p>The kind of research criminalised by the espionage and foreign interference offences may be important public interest research. It may also produce knowledge and ideas that are necessary for the exchange of information which underpins our liberal democracy. Criminalising this conduct risks undermining academic freedom and eroding core democratic principles.</p>
<h2>So, how can we protect academic freedom?</h2>
<p>In addition to implementing the recommendations in the report, we must reform our national security crimes to protect academic freedom in Australia. While the committee acknowledged the adequacy of these crimes to mitigate the national security threats against the research sector, it did not consider the overreach of these laws.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-foreign-interference-laws-will-compound-risks-to-whistleblowers-and-journalists-88631">New foreign interference laws will compound risks to whistleblowers and journalists</a>
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<p>Legitimate research endeavours could be better protected if a “national interest” defence to a charge of espionage or foreign interference were introduced. This would be similar to “public interest” defences and protect conduct done in the national interest. “National interest” should be flexible enough so various liberal democratic values – including academic freedom, press freedom, government accountability, and protection of human rights – can be considered alongside national security. </p>
<p>In the absence of a federal bill of rights, such a defence would go a long way towards ensuring legitimate research is protected and academic freedom in Australia is upheld.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Kendall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A national security report released this week made several recommendations for universities to protect themselves and their research from foreign interference and espionage.Sarah Kendall, PhD Candidate in Law, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1781542022-03-08T18:56:07Z2022-03-08T18:56:07ZUkrainian academics face exile, harassment and censorship in ongoing war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450177/original/file-20220306-27-c2ju0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C60%2C4416%2C2164&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators march at a rally in support of Ukraine at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. on Feb. 28. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protests at universities and statements from the <a href="https://council.science/current/news/isc-statement-ukraine/">International Science Council</a> denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine point to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/06/ukraine-fastest-growing-refugee-crisis-since-second-world-war">beginning of a massive refugee crisis</a> — and also raise urgent questions about how the conflict will affect Ukraine’s scholars and research.</p>
<p>Following the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/events-leading-up-russias-invasion-ukraine-2022-02-28/">Feb. 24 invasion</a>, which has now resulted <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-russia-ukraine-live-updates-civilians-killed-evacuations-irpin">in more than 1.7 million Ukrainians fleeing the country</a>, Ukraine’s universities and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/25/russias-invasion-ukraine-felt-academe">researchers</a> are being seriously affected with the widespread <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00621-6">displacement of faculty and students</a>,
and a <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220224173605184">suspension of all activities</a>. </p>
<p>The full extent of the damage on scholars and research will not be known for some time, but <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/2022/03/solidarity-with-the-people-of-ukraine-and-ukrainian-higher-education/">predictions are grim</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/russian-capture-of-ukraines-chornobyl-nuclear-plant-threatens-future-research-on-radioactivity-and-wildlife-177805">Russian capture of Ukraine's Chornobyl nuclear plant threatens future research on radioactivity and wildlife</a>
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<p>Our research expertises are in exploring challenges associated with <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110628746/html">refugee and migrant integration</a> into dominant societies and in <a href="https://merip.org/2021/06/intellectual-traditions-and-the-academy-in-turkey-an-interview-with-evren-altinkas/">intellectual traditions</a> and the rise of populism. </p>
<p>We also advocate with, and for, <a href="https://scienceinexile.org/issue">refugee and displaced scholars</a> fleeing conflict zones or repressive political circumstances, particularly those perceived as threatening to regimes and extremist groups, <a href="https://globalyoungacademy.net/activities/at-risk-scholars-initiative/">and who are at risk of being targeted</a> as a result. </p>
<p>One of us, Karly, co-founded the Young Academy of Scotland’s <a href="https://www.youngacademyofscotland.org.uk/membership/arar-membership/">At-Risk Academic and Refugee Membership</a> and is working on the At-Risk and Displaced Academics and Artists program for <a href="https://rsc-src.ca/en/fellows-members/college-members">the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists</a>. The other, Evren, has <a href="https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/42977">first-hand experience</a> with dislocation as a displaced scholar from Turkey, and organizes lectures and panels exploring the challenges displaced scholars face in host countries. </p>
<h2>Exile, harassment</h2>
<p>Many of Ukraine’s researchers likely face exile, various forms of harassment or worse; a similar fate will likely <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russian-academics-risk-arrest-oppose-ukraine-war">await Russian colleagues</a> who try to help them. </p>
<p>These predictions are based on what has happened before in countries facing war, conflict or political turmoil and strife — including, in recent years, Syria, Venezuela, Hungary, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjr4Y7bt6r2AhXUkIkEHUloChkQFnoECCMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hrw.org%2Freports%2Fethiopia0103.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1K1gX4w6epT53KuFkCZUF2">Ethiopia</a> and <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20170715061722938">Turkey</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450447/original/file-20220307-85648-isu9jj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Russian-American student Valerie Katrich addresses an interdenominational prayer service at a vigil in support of Ukraine at the University of Southern California on March 1, 2022.</span>
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</figure>
<p>When a war or conflict erupts, educational institutions such as schools and universities are primary military targets. The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) <a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/protecting-attack">notes that attacking schools and universities</a> enables “extremists to spread fear and indoctrinate new recruits.” </p>
<p>Iraq’s <a href="https://bookaid.org/news/2022/02/22/media-release-university-of-mosul-re-opens-with-over-20000-uk-donated-books/">Mosul University</a> was targeted by the Islamic State and its <a href="https://mosulbookbridge.org/about-us">library</a> destroyed in 2014. </p>
<p>Canada was one of 113 countries to endorse UNESCO’s 2015 <a href="https://ssd.protectingeducation.org/safe-schools-declaration-and-guidelines-on-military-use/">Safe Schools Declaration</a> calling on countries to protect schools and universities from military use during armed conflict.</p>
<p>Universities are also subjected to intellectual dismantling. At the extreme, in countries like Syria, this occurs through the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ijced-07-2018-0015">targeted harassment, kidnapping or even murder</a> of professors, researchers and students whose work is perceived as being at odds with the messaging of the regime or authoritarian government. </p>
<p>Numerous women and LGBTQ+ researchers from various countries have told us they feel vulnerable to acts of violence and segregation because of their sex or how they identify or because of their research in the fields of LGBTQ+ or women’s rights. </p>
<p>The International Science Council notes that <a href="https://council.science/current/blog/podcast-early-career-scientist-leaving-yemen-to-continue-research/">early-career researchers</a> without well-established networks often find themselves in highly precarious situations when conflicts erupt. </p>
<h2>Armed conflict, academic censorship</h2>
<p>Being able to <a href="https://www.gppi.net/media/KinzelbachEtAl_2020_Free_Universities.pdf">criticize government policy, to research subjects that are controversial or critical of an authoritarian government</a> — or to
advocate in fields like women’s health — is not a freedom that all academics and students possess.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/actions/academic-freedom-monitoring-project/">Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project</a> shows, researcher displacement through war, conflict and targeted violence is a persistent, longstanding issue. Sample data collected from <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/free-to-think-2021">September 2020 to August 2021</a>
identified 332 attacks from 272 verified incidents in 65 countries — a “small subset of all attacks on higher education.” </p>
<p>The consequences of these kinds of systemic attacks, due to armed conflict and academic censorship within countries, are severe because not only is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00404-5">immense human capital lost</a>, but global research capacity is undermined. </p>
<p>Academic censorship often targets <a href="https://www.scholarrescuefund.org/fellows-alumni/featured-scholars/page/3/">individual researchers</a> whose political beliefs, activism or research does not align with the narrative that the regime or authoritarian government wishes to advance. </p>
<h2>Crisis flashpoints</h2>
<p>Credible <a href="https://council.science/current/blog/refugee-and-displaced-scientists-a-willingness-to-do-more">estimates suggest</a> there are at least <a href="https://twas.org/sites/default/files/the_integration_of_refugee_and_displaced_scientists_creates_a_win-win_situation.pdf">10,000 displaced scientists</a> worldwide, but the number is likely much higher.</p>
<p>When a crisis hits, countless people end up internally displaced or in bordering countries. In the past decade, some of the major flashpoints have been <a href="https://www.msf.org/syria-depth">Syria</a>, Turkey, Yemen and <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/understanding-the-venezuelan-refugee-crisis">Venezuela</a>. </p>
<p>Ukraine is experiencing a similar mass displacement now, as many of its citizens seek refuge in other parts of the country or in neighbouring countries <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60555472">such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary</a>.</p>
<h2>Safe spaces for persecuted scholars</h2>
<p>Some scholars fleeing conflict also end up in Canada. The Government of Canada and Canadian academia needs a shared commitment to recognizing research — all disciplines — as a universal undertaking, and to providing safe spaces for persecuted scholars to continue their work.</p>
<p>We are aware of numerous initiatives where some Canadian universities independently or <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/sections/sar-canada/#members">in partnership with NGOs</a>, provide <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/sections/sar-canada/section-news/sar-canada-fall-2021-newsletter/">support</a> to displaced researchers through lectureships, visiting professorships, lab assistant roles or postdoctoral fellowships. The support is short term, usually for one, two or three years.</p>
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<p>As far as we are aware, there is no systemic research documenting these initiatives across Canada. </p>
<p>While this kind of support is essential, long-term structures recognizing the various needs of scholars at risk are needed — both in their home countries and in host countries.</p>
<p>Both Canada and academics in particular need to do more now because our colleagues in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Turkey, Ethiopia and many other countries are having, or have had, their academic freedom and rights to research stolen from them, with grave consequences for all of us.</p>
<p>It is essential that Canadians recognize that the Canadian research enterprise extends far beyond our own borders and we have a responsibility to make space for scholars at risk.</p>
<h2>Science diplomacy matters</h2>
<p>Academics and academic organizations in Canada have an important role to play in advocating for substantial support — and getting started is easy. They can advocate for academic freedom in partnership with vulnerable colleagues, join or connect with NGOs such as <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/">Scholars At Risk</a> or <a href="https://www.scholarrescuefund.org/">Scholar Rescue Fund</a>, and work within universities to provide research positions or studentships to those forced to flee.</p>
<p>Academics can reach out to colleagues in dangerous situations to ask them what their needs are — carefully, so as not to put them in more danger — and they can read more history.</p>
<p>Additionally, hiring committees can spend more time reviewing applications that come in from displaced colleagues and take time to consider how they might enhance research and teaching.</p>
<p>When formal routes of diplomacy are severed or severely disrupted through war and conflict, it’s critical that researchers keep building relationships with one another. When this involves scientists and shared policy building that affects global networks, this is known as grassroots science diplomacy.</p>
<p>This can matter enormously. It can lay the groundwork for peace, and preserving essential research that collectively benefits societies and people across borders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Karly Kehoe receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evren Altinkas receives funding from Middle East Studies Association (MESA) , Global Academy Fellow.</span></em></p>Canada and its universities have roles to play in providing safe spaces to scholars in regions where research is under threat due to conflict and repression.S. Karly Kehoe, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Communities, Saint Mary’s UniversityEvren Altinkas, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754172022-02-08T14:57:51Z2022-02-08T14:57:51ZUniversities: The often overlooked player in determining healthy democracies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442035/original/file-20220121-25-1m1zg5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C231%2C1418%2C965&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Georgia, the Board of Regents has given its universities the power to fire tenured professors without faculty input. Now some fear that academic freedom is threatened.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Zach J. Beavers)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/universities--the-often-overlooked-player-in-determining-healthy-democracies" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>We’ve been hearing recently about the possibility that the United States — assumed to be a prime example of democracy — is <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-polarization-is-bad-but-the-us-could-be-in-trouble-173833">in real peril of collapse</a>. Coming into 2022, we find ourselves in the midst of a worldwide <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/facing-up-to-the-democratic-recession/">democratic recession</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/21/democracy-is-more-fragile-than-many-of-us-realised-but-do-not-believe-that-it-is-doomed">Democracy is vulnerable and fragile</a>. It requires maintenance, participation, vigilance and constant re-assertion. If left unattended, it can drift, or be pushed, towards illiberalism and ultimately authoritarianism.</p>
<p>When discussions turn <a href="https://www.advocateshah.com/blog/what-is-freedom-of-press-the-fourth-pillar-of-democracy/">to the pillars of democracy</a>, folks will often name the free press, the legislature and the judiciary as the institutions that serve as a vital check and balance on power. Named with much less frequency is the academy.</p>
<p>A country’s institutional commitment to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2017.1325169">academic freedom is a key indicator of whether its democracy</a> is in good health.</p>
<h2>Democracy in danger</h2>
<p>If we look at the United States as an example, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/09/opinions/canadians-fear-us-democracy-collapse-obeidallah/index.html">the warning signs are clearly present</a> and add to a growing body of evidence that the country’s democracy is in danger. </p>
<p>In a new twist on the <a href="https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/loyaltyoath/schrecker.html">McCarthyist Cold War era</a> — when there was little tolerance for dissent, suspected communist ties and many academics were forced to sign loyalty oaths, interrogated and even terminated — the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/07/02/why-are-states-banning-critical-race-theory/">Brookings Institute reports</a> that at least 29 states have or plan on passing legislation banning entire areas of study, like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-critical-race-theory.html">critical race theory</a>. </p>
<p>Some legislatures, like Oklahoma are <a href="https://www.acluok.org/en/press-releases/aclu-aclu-oklahoma-lawyers-committee-file-lawsuit-challenging-oklahoma-classroom">pushing even further to eliminate discussions of gender, implicit bias and intersectionality</a>. </p>
<p>To add to that, Georgia has recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/us/georgia-university-system-tenure.html">eliminated tenure</a>, none of which bodes well for the once shining example of democracy. </p>
<p>You may be wondering how eliminating tenure relates to democracy. It’s an earned permanent appointment and is required to help ensure that the principles and protections that fall under academic freedom are not an empty promise. Without tenure an academic could be silenced by threat of termination. But yes, academics can still be fired for just cause.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An older white man sits in a suit while raising his hand up into the air." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442037/original/file-20220121-25-fsya3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sen. Michael McLendon was the chief lawmaker who sponsored a bill that would ban schools from teaching critical race theory, which led to a walkout of the Black senators in protest and the withholding of their votes on Jan. 21, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)</span></span>
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<h2>What is academic freedom?</h2>
<p>The definition of academic freedom remains largely unchanged since the American Association of University Professors <a href="https://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/A6520A9D-0A9A-47B3-B550-C006B5B224E7/0/1915Declaration.pdf">first issued their 1915 declaration</a> defining it as comprising three elements “freedom of inquiry and research; freedom of teaching within the university or college; and freedom of extramural utterance and action.”</p>
<p>Within healthy democracies, academic freedom, if not always respected, is at the very least, tolerated and protected. There’s an understanding that it may be invoked to <a href="https://www.caut.ca/bulletin/2021/12/interview-melanie-newton-and-deborah-cowen">inform public policy, disrupt inequitable power structures or act as an unpopular corrective</a> on the very governments, structures, institutions and cultures that are asked to defend and support it.</p>
<p>In return for defending a robust academic freedom, a country’s university faculty are enabled to speak truth, act as a check on government and help <a href="https://uofrpress.ca/Books/D/Dissident-Knowledge-in-Higher-Education">foster critical and creative, participatory citizens whose formation prepares them for a lifetime of democratic engagement</a>. But of course institutions of higher learning are one, not the only, site for teaching and learning and practising these critical skills and habits of mind.</p>
<h2>A potential whistleblower</h2>
<p>The academic freedom entrusted to faculty is usually described in one of two ways. The first manner aligns academic freedom with <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/dispatches-academic-freedom/the-price-of-academic-freedom/">rights, privileges and freedoms</a>. The second, brings in concepts such as responsibility, duty and whistleblower protection. </p>
<p>The first description is often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087412000118">used by critics who inevitably trot out the “ivory tower”</a> metaphor to describe the academy. The second is found in the language used by its defenders, whose own metaphor for the university’s role in society might be “lighthouse.”</p>
<p>In the second concept every tenured professor is a potential whistleblower, or societal lighthouse keeper and can work in tandem with a free press for reporting on elected governments and their policies, providing transparency and accountability.</p>
<p>It is a delicate balance where the scales can easily be tipped in the opposite direction. It is not difficult to imagine the potential for wealthy private donors, multinational corporations, a populist mob or even the government itself, to bring it all down.</p>
<p>As more countries flirt with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108957809">democratic backsliding</a>, we should all be concerned. A country’s tolerance and respect for academic freedom serves as a key indicator of the health of its democracy; let’s not ignore this important warning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Spooner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As more countries flirt with democratic backsliding, we should all be concerned. We can look to academic freedom as a gauge.Marc Spooner, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746952022-01-13T19:08:38Z2022-01-13T19:08:38ZWhat does ‘academic freedom’ mean in practice? Why the Siouxsie Wiles and Shaun Hendy employment case matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440353/original/file-20220111-17-wp99cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2998%2C1985&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two high-profile University of Auckland academics raised important questions about academic freedom with their <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/shaun-hendy-siouxsie-wiles-file-complaint-against-university-of-auckland/JPIUINTAUXI2TDC3K45JC4IDOA/">complaint</a> to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) that their employer had failed its duty of care to them.</p>
<p>Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles and Professor Shaun Hendy have become well known for their work explaining the science behind COVID-19 and guiding the public and government response. </p>
<p>But not everyone has agreed with that response or valued their contribution, and the academics have been threatened by what they have called “a small but venomous sector of the public”. They argued the university had not adequately responded to their safety concerns and requests for protection.</p>
<p>The case has now been referred to the Employment Court and the outcome for all parties remains unknown. </p>
<p>My focus is on the initial <a href="https://www.employment.govt.nz/assets/elawpdf/2021/2021-NZERA-586.pdf">determination</a> by the ERA, which referred to a letter from the university to Wiles and Hendy in August 2021 that urged them “to keep their public commentary to a minimum and suggested they take paid leave to enable them ‘to minimise any social media comments at present’.”</p>
<p>According to the ERA, this advice was “apparently given after [the university] received recommendations from its legal advisors to amend its policies so as to ‘not require’ its employees to provide public commentary, in order to limit its potential liability for online harassment.”</p>
<p>The ERA also noted the university “says that the applicants are not ‘expected’ or required to provide public commentary on COVID-19 as part of their employment or roles with the respondent, but it acknowledges they are entitled to do so.”</p>
<p>This issue is central to my concerns about academic freedom.</p>
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<h2>Freedom and risk</h2>
<p>The academics argued that the university is statutorily required to “accept a role as critic and conscience of society” – as is set out under <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS202213.html">section 268 of the Education and Training Act 2020</a>. </p>
<p>Universities routinely fulfil this role when academic staff and students state controversial or unpopular opinions and the results of their independent scholarship. Asking academics to step back from those roles to avoid risk seems to acknowledge that the threat derives from them doing their work.</p>
<p>I also fail to see how it would mitigate risk. An electrician who tried to mitigate the risk of electrocution by spending less time around wires hasn’t actually reduced the risk of electrocution when doing their job. They’ve just reduced the amount of time they are doing their job.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-new-zealands-universities-doing-enough-to-define-the-limits-of-academic-freedom-172297">Are New Zealand’s universities doing enough to define the limits of academic freedom?</a>
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<p>The Auckland academics are not the first to receive threats because of their “critic and conscience” activities. In the US, my former boss Dr Anthony Fauci says he, too, has received <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/11/fauci-sen-pauls-accusations-kindles-the-crazies-incited-death-threats.html">death threats</a> from members of the public because of his work on the pandemic.</p>
<p>Less visible but still damaging threats or derogatory comments can come from within the university community, too. <a href="https://newzealandecology.org/underserving-and-under-representation-m%C4%81ori-scientists-new-zealand%E2%80%99s-science-system">Systemic discrimination</a> based on <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/10/8753721/college-professor-fear">gender and race</a> is well documented in academia. And increasingly, there are conflicts arising out of commercial interests in public research organisations. </p>
<p>Elsewhere it can be even more dangerous, such as the state-sponsored attacks on academics <a href="https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/tag/turkey/">reported in Turkey</a>. As a fellow scientist, I empathise with colleagues forced into the spotlight by virtue of their expertise or conscience.</p>
<h2>Uses and limits of institutional power</h2>
<p>Universities provide an important protection of academic freedom by not using their power as employers to stifle opinion. But it’s not enough. Universities should be more active in enabling academics to fulfil their role as critic and conscience of society so that, as expected by parliament, academic freedom is “<a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS202276.html">preserved and enhanced</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440352/original/file-20220111-23-1rt8g4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Shaun Hendy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there are also limits. No university in Aotearoa New Zealand has the scale to protect its students and staff from the concerted actions of a hostile country, a multi-billion dollar multinational company, or even the whispers of co-conspirators at coffee breaks during the ranking of grants. </p>
<p>What universities <em>should</em> do cannot exceed what they <em>can</em> do.</p>
<p>A coalition of government, universities, <a href="https://production.teu.ac.nz/academic-freedom-aotearoa/academic-freedom-conference-challenges-opportunities/">unions</a>, staff and students needs to work together to redefine what can be done. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ministerial-interference-is-an-attack-on-academic-freedom-and-australias-literary-culture-174329">Ministerial interference is an attack on academic freedom and Australia's literary culture</a>
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<p>The government could reaffirm its commitment to critic-and-conscience activities by creating or re-purposing funding explicitly for these. Accountability will follow because universities would be required to expose that activity to public oversight.</p>
<p>The expectations of the university and the government to preserve and enhance academic freedom should become a normal conversation. </p>
<p>The risk is governments might want to influence what does and does not constitute being a critic and conscience of society, and use funding to stifle criticism of its policies. While this risk exists already, the temptation to constrain academic freedom could become stronger. </p>
<p>But balance would be provided by using the United Nations’ <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000141952">higher education declaration</a> as a benchmark, through the transparency of the funding accountability exercise, and the declared precondition the funding allocation process be subject to ongoing and open scrutiny by university staff and students.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-is-under-threat-around-the-world-heres-how-to-defend-it-118220">Academic freedom is under threat around the world – here's how to defend it</a>
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<h2>Accepting risk with freedom</h2>
<p>Universities would be expected to use their additional resources to enable students and staff, as safely as possible, to use their academic freedom for public service. </p>
<p>Jurisdictional responsibilities could be negotiated between universities and government so that, where appropriate, a threat requiring more than campus security would be covered by the country’s police or defence resources.</p>
<p>But students and staff have some responsibilities, too. The university community cannot and should not leave its own protection to others. It needs to take a greater role in self-policing prejudice, privilege and conflicts of interest within the academic community itself.</p>
<p>Confronting the ultimate <a href="https://blogs.canterbury.ac.nz/science/2021/09/30/5-simple-rules-for-using-academic-freedom/">holders of power</a> within their own academies and professional bodies will be the most painful action for members. But it would be worse for the community to fail in this and therefore do less as the critic and conscience of society.</p>
<p>If the use of academic freedom did not create risk, parliament would not have needed to legislate for its protection. But that risk should not be shouldered by Wiles and Hendy, or anyone else, alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Heinemann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The case taken by two high-profile academics against their university goes to the heart of what it means to be a ‘critic and conscience of society’.Jack Heinemann, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1714462021-12-10T13:38:06Z2021-12-10T13:38:06ZProfessors’ free speech rights can clash with public universities’ interest in managing their employees as they choose<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436188/original/file-20211207-136652-1obtrr9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C995%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heavener Hall Archway, one entrance to the University of Florida campus in Gainesville.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://admissions.ufl.edu/visit">University of Florida</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>University of Florida officials in November blocked three professors from offering expert testimony in a lawsuit that challenged recently enacted state voting restrictions. But the university <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/us/voting-rights-florida-professors-testify.html">soon reversed course</a> amid a public outcry.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/11/05/university-of-florida-faculty-decry-1392327">The criticism leveled at the university</a> included <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/04/university-floridas-decision-silence-its-professors-is-an-assault-academic-freedom/">charges that the scholars’ academic freedom had been violated</a>, along with their First Amendment rights to free speech. The professors themselves <a href="https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/21099075-uflawsuit/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1">filed a lawsuit against the university</a> after the reversal, saying that the university had violated “foundational principles of academic freedom and free speech.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/governments-speech-and-the-constitution/BAE6367A698475ED9DBB328B5D9E40E5">From my perspective</a> as <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3625696">a constitutional law scholar and lawyer</a>, untangling how these two claims are both related and distinct can help us understand how these kinds of disputes ultimately pit robust protections for free inquiry and debate against public institutions’ desire to manage their operations as they choose. It turns out that courts reach very mixed results when deciding these disputes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People voting at stand-up voting carrels." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436198/original/file-20211207-141213-1ukhbyq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Election Day in Miami, Florida, Nov. 2, 2020. The Florida professors were originally barred by their university from testifying about recently enacted voting restrictions in the state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/voters-cast-their-ballots-at-a-polling-station-on-november-news-photo/1350826613?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Protecting speech</h2>
<p>Public universities – like the University of Florida – are government employers. They sometimes restrict the speech of faculty members, who are their employees. For example, the University of Florida asserted that professors’ testimony in a lawsuit against the state was “<a href="https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/21099075-uflawsuit/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1">adverse to the university’s interests as a state of Florida institution</a>” when it first sought to block that testimony. Such restrictions can trigger both First Amendment and academic freedom concerns. </p>
<p><a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/amendment-i/interps/266">First Amendment law</a> is the body of constitutional law that protects speech from the government’s unjustified interference. For example, it prohibits the government from punishing critics for speaking out. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure">Academic freedom</a> describes an academic community’s customs and practices that allow free intellectual inquiry and debate. These customs and practices help advance universities’ mission of creating and disseminating knowledge. </p>
<p>Under these customs and practices, for instance, scholars have the freedom to choose which topics to explore and which conclusions to draw.</p>
<p>Academic freedom protections are enforced by academic communities, like universities. First Amendment protections are enforced by courts. </p>
<h2>Government often limits its employees’ speech</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment law</a> generally prohibits the government from restricting individuals’ right to speak freely. But the First Amendment rules that apply to the government when it limits the speech of its own employees are much more government-friendly, allowing greater restrictions of those workers’ speech. </p>
<p>Under these rules, the First Amendment protects a public employee’s speech as an individual citizen on a matter of public concern, so long as that speech does not unduly interfere with her government employer’s operations. </p>
<p>So, for example, the First Amendment would protect a public school teacher’s letter to the editor or social media posting that criticizes the mayor. <a href="https://www.wuft.org/news/files/2021/11/lawsuit.pdf">The lawsuit</a> filed by the University of Florida professors who were originally told they couldn’t give testimony similarly argues that, through that testimony, the professors sought to offer their views as individual citizens on the important matter of voting rights.</p>
<p>In contrast, according to the Supreme Court, public employees’ speech “pursuant to to their official duties” is entirely unprotected by the First Amendment. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2005/04-473">one landmark ruling</a>, that’s because government employers must, as a practical matter, have power over their employees’ job-related speech, to control what the Supreme Court called “what the employer itself has commissioned or created.” In other words, what a person says as part of her official duties as a government employee is not protected by the First Amendment. This is so, according to the court, even when the employee’s job-related speech is on a matter of great concern to the public.</p>
<h2>What about whistleblowers?</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court first announced this rule in a 2006 decision called <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2005/04-473">Garcetti v. Ceballos</a>. In that case, the justices rejected a prosecutor’s claim that he was exercising his First Amendment rights to free speech and should not have been punished by his governmental employer for his internal memo that questioned a warrant’s legitimacy. </p>
<p>Lower courts now frequently apply the Garcetti ruling <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1357082">to dismiss the First Amendment claims of government workers</a> punished for truthfully reporting government misconduct when it was their job to report it. </p>
<p>For example, courts found that the First Amendment did not protect public health care workers who were <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1196459.html">disciplined after conveying</a> their concerns about patient care. Likewise, <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-7th-circuit/1263012.html">it didn’t protect police officers</a> who were fired after reporting public corruption. </p>
<p>The Garcetti ruling sometimes makes it hard to figure out when public employees’ speech occurs “pursuant to their official duties” and thus loses any First Amendment protection. </p>
<p><a href="https://casetext.com/case/lane-v-cent-ala-cmty-coll">One court</a> even applied Garcetti to conclude that the First Amendment permits the government to punish a public employee for truthfully testifying that a state legislator on a state agency payroll had not been reporting to work – when the employee’s testimony involved information that he acquired on the job. </p>
<p>Fortunately, the Supreme Court reversed that decision in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2013/13-483">Lane v. Franks</a>, holding that the First Amendment “protects a public employee who provided truthful sworn testimony” when his job duties did not ordinarily involve such testimony. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A whistle and a judge's gavel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436193/original/file-20211207-15-epgpf9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Court decisions have limited the free speech rights of public employees, even when they are blowing the whistle on bad behavior in their workplace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/whistleblower-protection-law-and-freedom-of-royalty-free-image/1200044546?adppopup=true">iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Crowded intersection</h2>
<p>Another important question that remains unanswered is whether the Garcetti ruling strips public university faculty members of First Amendment protection for their research, teaching and other job-related speech. It’s a First Amendment question complicated by its intersection with academic freedom protections. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court has emphasized that academic freedom is key to universities’ mission of creating and disseminating knowledge. This mission, the justices said, advances First Amendment values by contributing to the marketplace of ideas and a vibrant democracy. </p>
<p>The court relied on this observation in two mid-20th-century decisions to say that the First Amendment protected universities from legislatures that sought to squelch unorthodox beliefs or unpopular expression. Lawmakers had tried to do that by requiring <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/15/keyishian-v-board-of-regents">loyalty oaths</a> of faculty members or by investigating faculty members’ <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/16/sweezy-v-new-hampshire">allegedly “subversive” activities</a>.</p>
<p>If the First Amendment protects universities from that sort of legislative interference with their academic mission, does it also protect public university faculty members from employer interference with their job-related speech? </p>
<p>Decades later in the Garcetti case, the Supreme Court punted on this question. It’s still not clear whether the First Amendment protects public university faculty members’ research, teaching or other on-the-job speech from their employer’s restrictions. </p>
<p>Regardless of how the Supreme Court ultimately rules on this First Amendment question, academic freedom principles – which rely on academic communities themselves for their enforcement rather than on courts – can still provide an independent source of protection for faculty members’ job-related speech.</p>
<p>In other words, universities themselves can choose to respect those principles in their treatment of their faculty members. </p>
<p>For these reasons, those who objected to the University of Florida’s efforts to silence its professors’ testimony argued not only that the university was violating the First Amendment, but <a href="https://www.aaup.org/news/university-floridas-politically-motivated-violation-academic-freedom-undermines-common-good">also that it was violating its own institutional commitment to academic freedom</a>.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: The University of Florida is a supporting member of The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171446/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Norton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the University of Florida barred three professors from testifying in a lawsuit over voting restrictions, it raised important questions of academic freedom and free speech.Helen Norton, Rothgerber Chair in Constitutional Law, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1722972021-11-22T19:08:25Z2021-11-22T19:08:25ZAre New Zealand’s universities doing enough to define the limits of academic freedom?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433038/original/file-20211122-21-5n9mlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4493%2C2971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The news last week that University of Auckland public health researcher Simon Thornley was <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300456441/covid19-vaccination-paper-criticised-as-disinformation-is-being-withdrawn-coauthor-simon-thornley-says">retracting</a> a co-authored paper about supposed vaccination risks during pregnancy raised deeper questions about the limits of academic freedom.</p>
<p>Thornley’s own head of department had called for the paper to be retracted due to “the anxiety it is creating for expectant parents and those planning to have a child”. Other experts in the field had <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126906088/covid19-a-paper-on-vaccination-in-pregnancy-coauthored-by-simon-thornley-has-been-panned-by-experts-around-the-world">strongly criticised</a> the paper’s methodology and conclusions.</p>
<p>The university itself responded publicly by asserting, “As an academic staff member […] Dr Thornley has the right to exercise his academic freedom.” The vice-chancellor <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/17-11-2021/simon-thornley-retracts-paper-with-false-claims-on-vaccine-and-pregnancy?">later said</a>, “While the University supports academic freedom, we do require research to be conducted with a high degree of integrity.”</p>
<p>The controversy follows an earlier one in July, when a group of academics published an <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/447898/university-academics-claim-matauranga-maori-not-science-sparks-controversy">open letter</a> questioning the scientific status of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge). The Royal Society Te Apārangi issued <a href="https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/news/joint-statement-from-president-and-chair-of-academy-executive-committee/">a statement</a> rejecting their views and affirming the value of mātauranga Māori as a knowledge system.</p>
<p>The society is now <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/royal-society-investigation-into-matauranga-maori-letter-sparks-academic-debate">reported</a> to be investigating two of its fellows who were co-authors of the letter. In response, a group calling itself the <a href="https://www.fsu.nz/">Free Speech Union</a> has <a href="https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2111/S00170/exclusive-royal-society-is-investigating-academics-for-defending-science.htm">called</a> the Royal Society’s response an attack on free speech, saying it sends “a chilling message” to other academics.</p>
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<h2>Freedom and integrity</h2>
<p>These are just two of several conflicts currently playing out in Aotearoa New Zealand over the limits of academic freedom.</p>
<p>Tricky trade-offs surround particular cases like these, and they are not easily resolved. But debates over difficult cases are too often hampered by shallow conceptions of the role of universities within society and flimsy understandings of academic freedom.</p>
<p>Public universities have a public mission: they serve society through generating new knowledge and teaching students. They also, in the language of the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/whole.html#LMS202276">Education and Training Act 2020</a>, serve as a “repository of knowledge and expertise” and play a role as “critic and conscience of society”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-choose-our-words-more-carefully-when-discussing-matauranga-maori-and-science-165465">Let's choose our words more carefully when discussing mātauranga Māori and science</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>University staff and students are granted certain freedoms under the act to fulfil these socially valuable functions.</p>
<p>Two fundamental ideas provide the rationale for academic freedom. The first is that freedom of inquiry is essential for the advancement of knowledge. Without the freedom to explore new ideas and to test received wisdom, the quest for knowledge cannot progress.</p>
<p>The second is the idea that universities should be free from interference that would corrupt the integrity of research and the dissemination of research findings. It is in the public’s interests that neither the state nor private individuals and corporations are <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/79716207/the-high-public-cost-of-muzzling-scientists">allowed to muzzle</a> researchers from publicising what they know when the public would benefit from knowing.</p>
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<h2>High ethical standards</h2>
<p>Institutional autonomy and the right to critically question are essential if universities are to be reliable sources of knowledge and expertise for society at large. But neither implies academics should be free to do what they like or to say what they like with impunity.</p>
<p>The Education and Training Act couples the freedoms granted to universities with expectations of public accountability. It says tertiary institutions <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS302075.html">should have</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>as much independence and freedom to make academic, operational, and management decisions as is consistent with the nature of the services they provide, the efficient use of national resources, the national interest, and the demands of accountability.</p>
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<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-fake-free-speech-crisis-could-imperil-academic-freedom-144272">How a fake 'free speech crisis' could imperil academic freedom</a>
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</em>
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<p>In turn, the legislation places on tertiary institutions the responsibility to ensure the “highest ethical standards” are maintained.</p>
<p>That’s as it should be. Just as we expect medical associations to hold doctors accountable to high standards of competent practice and ethical conduct, so should we expect tertiary institutions to hold academics to the same high standards.</p>
<h2>Critic and conscience</h2>
<p>Controversial or unpopular opinions are sometimes just what society needs to hear. That’s why the law recognises a “<a href="http://www.criticandconscience.org.nz/the-law.html">critic and conscience of society</a>” role for academics – the role of speaking truth to power, as we like to say.</p>
<p>But the usefulness of dissenting views to society cannot be defended if these opinions rest on faulty evidence or demonstrable falsehoods. Misinformation is incompatible with performing a role as critic and conscience of society.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-fundamental-principles-for-upholding-freedom-of-speech-on-campus-104690">Four fundamental principles for upholding freedom of speech on campus</a>
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<p>From the public’s point of view, a university is malfunctioning if it harbours and protects misinformation. It ceases to be a reliable source of knowledge and expertise.</p>
<p>Likewise, academic freedom does not provide an exemption from ethical standards. Like all public institutions, we should expect universities to be places that foster healthy and respectful relationships, and serve wider societal goals of improving well-being, overcoming injustices and combating environmental destruction.</p>
<p>Universities that tolerate bullying and harassment of staff and students, or marginalise already disadvantaged social groups, fail to live up to their public mission.</p>
<h2>Leadership needed</h2>
<p>New Zealand universities need to look hard at these issues. In today’s political and media environment, the challenge of mis- and disinformation is only going to intensify. Institutional culture, practices and policies need to account for this. </p>
<p>And universities have barely begun to address the reality that campuses are often experienced as hostile spaces by minority groups, not least Māori and Pacific staff and students. </p>
<p>A genuine democratisation of university life – including tackling institutional racism – is also vital to ensure all communities in Aotearoa New Zealand can see themselves as participants in and beneficiaries of what universities do. Principles of <a href="https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/meaning-of-the-treaty/">Te Tiriti o Waitangi</a> should not only be acknowledged but given meaningful expression.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-not-in-a-university-then-where-academia-must-define-harm-to-allow-open-debate-on-difficult-issues-163355">If not in a university, then where? Academia must define harm to allow open debate on difficult issues</a>
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<p>Hard work will be required for our universities to become highly trusted institutions by all communities. This is especially true of <a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=tangata+whenua">tangata whenua</a> and Pacific people. In fact, our tertiary institutions have a lot to learn from tangata whenua about handling disagreements and responding to unethical behaviour in a way that upholds the <a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=mana">mana</a> of all involved.</p>
<p>We would do well to take a lead from legal scholar Moana Jackson who <a href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/moana-jackson-rethinking-free-speech/">has envisioned</a> universities as “a <a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/3665">marae ātea</a> where robust debate and criticism should flourish”, but also as “a <a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?&keywords=whare">whare</a> where relationships should be nurtured and enhanced, and where all students and staff should feel safe and free”.</p>
<p>To realise such a vision will require clear-headed and courageous leadership at all levels within our universities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matheson Russell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent controversies involving academic freedom and responsibility raise important questions about how publicly accountable Aotearoa’s universities should be.Matheson Russell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1709862021-11-02T12:25:31Z2021-11-02T12:25:31ZUniversity of Florida bans professors from giving expert testimony against state – a scholar explains the academic freedom issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429642/original/file-20211101-15-1rvqgj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3788%2C2531&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Three professors from the University of Florida have been barred from participating as expert witnesses in a voting rights case.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gainesville-university-of-florida-campus-entrance-with-news-photo/1084719122?adppopup=true">Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The University of Florida <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/florida-professors-voting-rights-lawsuit.html">barred three of its professors</a> from serving as paid experts in a Florida voting rights case - <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/11/01/ufs-big-mistake-on-academic-freedom-editorial/">sparking outrage</a> within academia and in the news media. The university said allowing its professors to testify against the state was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/floridaa-professors-voting-rights-lawsuit.html">at odds with its interests</a>. Critics say the move <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/totalitarianism-takes-aim-at-higher-education">puts politics ahead of academic freedom</a>. Here, <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/2154366">George Justice</a>, an English professor and former college dean, offers insight into the dynamics at play in the controversy.</em></p>
<h2>Why do professors need permission to be paid experts?</h2>
<p>Many universities, <a href="https://policy.ufl.edu/policy/conflicts-of-commitment-and-conflicts-of-interest/">including the University of Florida</a>, have policies that ask faculty to seek approval for “outside activities.” This is true for both paid and unpaid activities.</p>
<p>Those who work at research universities like the University of Florida have <a href="https://community.acue.org/blog/teaching-and-research-excellence-complimentary-sides-of-the-same-coin/">job responsibilities</a> outside of teaching. Tenured and tenure-track faculty spend less than half their time on direct instruction; they often teach two courses per semester. More than half their time, therefore, is allocated to research and service to the profession.</p>
<p>Since professors have a lot of discretion in when they work, they have a lot of opportunities to moonlight – whether in jobs related to their expertise or not. In doing so, in theory they might neglect their official duties. Unapproved activities would be considered a conflict of their commitment to the job. </p>
<p>Universities therefore develop policies for faculty to avoid both conflicts of commitment and conflicts of interest. At the University of Florida, <a href="https://policy.ufl.edu/policy/conflicts-of-commitment-and-conflicts-of-interest/">a conflict of interest takes place</a> “when a University Employee’s financial, professional, commercial or personal interests or activities outside of the University affects, or appears to affect, their professional judgment or obligations to the University.” </p>
<h2>Can a public university order faculty not to speak out publicly or in court?</h2>
<p>Academic freedom provides college and university faculty members the right to conduct research and teach students in a manner consistent with their professional knowledge. But the principles of academic freedom do not protect everything a tenured faculty member might say. This is true whether inside or outside of the university. </p>
<p>The landmark 1940 <a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/1940-statement-principles-academic-freedom-and-tenure">Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure</a> – made by the American Association of University Professors and still in use today – states that: “Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties.” However, the statement says research done for “pecuniary return” – that is, in exchange for money – “should be based upon an understanding with the authorities of the institution.” In other words, universities can’t tell professors how to do their research as long as they fulfill their other duties, such as teaching. But when it comes to getting paid for their research, they need to get permission from the university where they work. </p>
<p>The University of Florida <a href="https://www.ocala.com/story/news/education/campus/2021/10/31/university-of-florida-spokeswoman-three-professors-could-testify-if-unpaid/6223947001/">now claims</a> that this is an issue of “pecuniary return” for faculty research. University spokesperson Hessy Fernandez stated that the university is merely <a href="https://www.ocala.com/story/news/education/campus/2021/10/31/university-of-florida-spokeswoman-three-professors-could-testify-if-unpaid/6223947001/">restraining these three experts</a> from taking paid work outside their university duties.</p>
<p>“If the professors wish to do so pro bono on their own time, without using university resources, they would be free to do so,” Fernandez has said.</p>
<p>Fernandez’s statement contradicts the university’s previous justifications for preventing the faculty to testify as experts. The university initially <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/30/florida-voting-rights-desantis-lawsuit/">asserted</a> that there was a conflict of interest rather than commitment: “As UF is a state actor, litigation against the state is adverse to UF’s interests.” </p>
<p>Now, they seem to be claiming a conflict of commitment, defined in their <a href="https://policy.ufl.edu/policy/conflicts-of-commitment-and-conflicts-of-interest/">standard policies</a> as “when a University Employee engages in an Outside Activity, either paid or unpaid, that could interfere with their professional obligations to the University.” The university has not explained in what way testifying as expert witnesses would violate the professors’ professional obligations.</p>
<h2>Have other scholars faced this kind of university restraint on their speech before?</h2>
<p>Not that I am aware of. Experts quoted in news reports call Florida’s denial of the faculty members’ request to testify on the basis of their scholarly expertise “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/florida-is-a-five-alarm-fire-for-academic-freedom">unprecedented</a>.” They say this is especially so since it’s a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/florida-professors-voting-rights-lawsuit.html">prior restraint on a professor’s ability to speak</a>.”</p>
<p>“<a href="https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1606">Prior restraint</a>” refers to censorship even before someone has spoken or published their words. It implies the requirement of a formal license in order to speak. By focusing its latest comments on the prospect of the faculty members being paid for their work as expert witnesses, I believe the university is trying to avoid accusations of exercising prior restraint.</p>
<h2>Does tenure protect professors who defy their university?</h2>
<p>Tenure does not protect faculty members who defy basic rules of employment that require them to fulfill their specified job duties. </p>
<p>Tenure does protect faculty members’ right to speak up on matters of their expertise. This includes speaking as expert witnesses. Many universities have specific language for this. For instance, <a href="https://facultyaffairs.oregonstate.edu/faculty-handbook/expert-witness-policy-and-procedure">Oregon State University has a policy that states</a> faculty can serve as expert witnesses in administrative or judicial proceedings in which the Oregon State Board of Higher Education and Oregon State University are not parties, as long as they do so “in a manner consistent with the OSU Policy on Outside Professional Activities, and consistent with any college, unit, or department restrictions on outside consulting or conflict of interest policies.” </p>
<p>It would be a high bar for the University of Florida to jump over to claim that these faculty members would be violating their commitment to their research and their students by offering their expert testimony for this particular case, which challenges a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/florida-voting-law.html">recent law on voting rights in Florida</a>, a subject for which all three are experts. </p>
<p>Identifying the university’s interest with the interests of the current governor - referred to as “the executive branch” in the university’s communications with the scholars – runs counter to the history and practice of public higher education. It also contradicts the more specific protections of academic freedom.</p>
<h2>Is this action a threat to academic freedom?</h2>
<p>It is a big threat. This is one of two recent challenges to tenure and academic freedom in Southern states. The other is a change to tenure rules in state universities in Georgia. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/us/georgia-university-system-tenure.html">changes</a> there allow administrators to fire tenured faculty – who have a university guarantee of a job for life – without a <a href="https://www.aaup.org/file/1940%20Statement.pdf">hearing before a faculty committee</a>. Some ask: If administrators by themselves can decide to revoke tenure, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/10/04/tenure-under-threat-georgia">does tenure really exist?</a>. In the cases of both Florida and Georgia, university administrations are taking on responsibility for managing what faculty do and say outside of established principles of faculty self-governance.</p>
<p><em>The University of Florida financially supports The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170986/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Justice is affiliated with Dever Justice, LLC, a higher education consulting partnership. </span></em></p>The University of Florida is barring three scholars from testifying as expert witnesses in a highly political lawsuit. A veteran college administrator looks at what’s at stake.George Justice, Professor of English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1544832021-10-13T23:29:25Z2021-10-13T23:29:25ZHigh Court lends weight to academic freedom despite Peter Ridd losing appeal against dismissal<p>The High Court has upheld the decision of James Cook University to terminate the employment of controversial physicist Professor Peter Ridd. The court <a href="https://eresources.hcourt.gov.au/showCase/2021/HCA/32">ruled</a> on Wednesday that a clause in the JCU enterprise agreement protecting “intellectual freedom” did not prohibit Ridd’s dismissal for breaching the university’s code of conduct. However, the judgment did give new legal weight to academic freedom. </p>
<p>The court found the university had breached the clause on intellectual freedom when it first censured Ridd for statements made to journalists that were highly critical of colleagues’ work on climate change and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. The court held that, as these statements were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-23/peter-ridd-reef-science-climate-change/11026540">within his areas of academic expertise</a> and were honestly held, they were protected from disciplinary action even if not respectful or courteous (as the JCU code of conduct for staff required). </p>
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<p>The decision is based on the particular terms of the JCU enterprise agreement. However, most Australian universities have similar clauses in their enterprise agreement. </p>
<p>Similarly, in a <a href="https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/full/2021/2021fcafc0159">judgment</a> in August this year, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia found the Sydney University enterprise agreement provided enforceable protection of intellectual freedom. This matter, involving controversial political economist Tim Anderson, has been sent for a new trial. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/court-gives-legal-weight-to-academics-right-to-intellectual-freedom-but-its-not-the-final-word-167112">Court gives legal weight to academics' right to intellectual freedom, but it's not the final word</a>
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<h2>Why is academic freedom important?</h2>
<p>Academics employed at Australian universities provide expert commentary on a range of complex issues. Academic freedom ensures that appropriately qualified and trained experts are able to assist the public and government in making informed decisions. As universities are places for the discovery and dissemination of knowledge, open and robust debate by academics is central to the search for truth and social progress.</p>
<p>In 2019, a former chief justice of the High Court, Robert French, conducted an <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-publications/resources/report-independent-review-freedom-speech-australian-higher-education-providers-march-2019">independent review</a> of academic freedom at Australian universities. The report highlighted that all Australian universities have policies that may inhibit academics from commenting publicly on issues within their areas of expertise. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-free-speech-bill-a-sop-to-pauline-hanson-and-other-critics-but-what-difference-will-it-make-150449">University free speech bill a sop to Pauline Hanson and other critics, but what difference will it make?</a>
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<p>In particular, university codes of conduct typically require staff to act “respectfully” and “courteously” towards other staff. Breaches of these codes may lead ultimately to termination – as in the cases of Ridd and Anderson. Therefore, a university’s powers as employer may conflict with the freedom of academics to speak publicly on relevant topics.</p>
<h2>Decision hinged on response to censure</h2>
<p>JCU took disciplinary action against Ridd, and ultimately terminated his employment, based on a range of conduct. Ridd argued that the intellectual freedom clause protected all his conduct.</p>
<p>The High Court agreed some of Ridd’s conduct was protected, as it was within the terms of the clause. For example, in a media interview, Ridd criticised the research of other JCU academics. This conduct was protected, as it was within his areas of expertise. </p>
<p>Significantly, the court said Ridd did not need to express his opinions respectfully or courteously, because intellectual freedom is subject only to constraints referred to in the clause.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-open-minds-explores-how-academic-freedom-and-the-public-university-are-at-risk-156213">Book review: Open Minds explores how academic freedom and the public university are at risk</a>
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<p>However, Ridd’s conduct in publicly criticising JCU for taking disciplinary action against him was not protected. This conduct was contrary to another term of the enterprise agreement which required confidentiality regarding disciplinary matters. </p>
<p>The court held that JCU’s termination of Ridd’s employment was based on conduct that the intellectual freedom clause did not protect, as it was unrelated to any matter within his academic expertise. </p>
<h2>A mixed outcome for academic freedom</h2>
<p>Although the High Court upheld Ridd’s termination, it interpreted the intellectual freedom clause more generously than the full court of the Federal Court when it upheld an appeal by JCU against a judge’s finding that Ridd was wrongfully dismissed. The full court <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2020/123.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=ridd">held</a> that none of Ridd’s conduct was protected by the clause. </p>
<p>However, the High Court’s decision was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/06/peter-ridd-awarded-12m-in-unfair-dismissal-case-against-james-cook-university">not as generous</a> as the judge in the initial trial in the Federal Court. The judge <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2020/123.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=ridd">held</a> that all of Ridd’s conduct was protected and awarded him over A$1 million in compensation.</p>
<p>The High Court’s decision indicates that clauses protecting intellectual freedom may override staff codes of conduct. However, this depends on the wording of the clauses and the defined scope and exceptions to intellectual freedom.</p>
<p>The court emphasised the importance of intellectual freedom, describing it as a “defining feature of universities”. This suggests courts will take a generous approach to interpreting such clauses in the future. </p>
<p>The decision also suggests that requirements to act “respectfully” and “courteously”, which are found in many university codes of conduct, will not limit the exercise of intellectual freedom. </p>
<p>The court referred to intellectual freedom as having a “long-standing core meaning” that is inconsistent with such limitations. The judgment quoted from John Stuart Mill’s famous <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/130/2.html">defence of free speech</a> in stating:</p>
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<p>Whilst a prohibition upon disrespectful and discourteous conduct in intellectual expression might be a “convenient plan for having peace in the intellectual world”, the “price paid for this sort of intellectual pacification, is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill John Swannie is a member of the National Tertiary Education Union, and President of the Victoria University Branch of the NTEU.</span></em></p>The court found the university was unjustified in censuring the academic for initial conduct that was protected as an exercise in intellectual freedom. But his response to disciplinary action wasn’t.Dr Bill Swannie, Lecturer in College of Law and Justice, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.