Academic Freedom in the Age of Trump

Start: Monday, February 20, 201712:00 PM

The 2016 election has exacerbated a political climate that was already inimical to academic freedom. We have recently seen legislative and gubernatorial attacks on individual faculty members, course offerings, governing boards, the institution of tenure, and, generally, the institutional autonomy of colleges and universities. Websites such as Professor Watchlist are monitoring activities of faculty members and denouncing departures from what they view as acceptable. These activities have led to targeted harassment of faculty members. This presentation provides an overview of the concept of academic freedom, recent attacks on academic freedom, and how you can defend academic freedom.

Hans-Joerg Tiede is a senior program officer in the Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance at the American Association of University Professors. Prior to joining the national staff, he was a faculty member at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is the editor of Policy Documents and Reports (the AAUP “Redbook”) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015) and author of University Reform: The Founding of the American Association of University Professors (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015).

The talk will go from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.