The Fight for Academic Freedom in the UK
How the battle for the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act was fought, won, and nearly lost again.
Abhishek Saha
· 34 min read
Academic Freedom
A collection of 27 posts
Identity and Conflicts of Interest
It is always the lecturer’s responsibility to ensure that students know that they can speak freely.
Holly Lawford-Smith
· 10 min read
The Amy Wax Affair
A tenured scholar has paid a high price for bluntly expressing uncomfortable truths.
Charles Murray
· 7 min read
Defending Academic Freedom in Higher Education and Medicine
The success of the academy requires academic freedom and tolerance for viewpoint diversity. These critical values are under increasing threat.
Jeffrey S. Flier
· 12 min read
The Harvard Double Standard
And how higher education can reform from within.
Jeffrey S. Flier
· 12 min read
The Sex of Skeletons
To suggest that a spirited discussion of the importance of sex and gender in archeology threatens “scientific integrity” is to misunderstand the nature of science.
Lawrence M. Krauss
· 7 min read
The Cancellation of Bertrand Russell
Eight decades later, the issues raised by the Russell case—the rights to free speech and academic freedom—have still not been settled.
James Huffman
· 9 min read
What History Teaches Us About the Importance of Academic Freedom
This 1949 primer shows us there’s nothing new about today’s controversies about free speech on campus.
James Huffman
· 12 min read
Amy Wax and Academic Freedom
The investigation into the polarizing law professor violates the most basic tenets of academic freedom.
Steven Grant
· 14 min read
Stuck in the Middle (of Academia)
Academia is a mess, but there is still hope.
Christopher J. Ferguson
· 12 min read
And Yet it May (Or May Not) Move
If we allow ideological campaigns to discourage controversial research, we will be making a terrible mistake.
Bryan J. Pesta
· 21 min read
Indigenous Activists Are Targeting My Research. My Own University Is Helping Them
Academics who study ancient Paleoindian populations are increasingly being denied access to skeletons, artifacts, and even old x-rays and research reports. We need to start fighting back
Elizabeth Weiss
· 10 min read
Academic Exile, Two Years On
Academia has become an intellectual prison, and many incarcerated professors are compelled to live a dual existence.
Bo Winegard
· 13 min read
Why This Feminist Is Taking the University of Bristol to Court
Next week, I am taking my university to court. To my knowledge, it is the first time an academic institution has been forced, at trial, to justify why it prioritises trans rights over women’s rights. The other party in the case is the University of Bristol, which one might
Raquel Rosario Sánchez
· 15 min read
An Astronomer Cancels His Own Research—Because the Results Weren’t Popular
Astronomy seems to be in trouble, as it is increasingly populated by researchers who seem more concerned with terrestrial politics than celestial objects, and who at times view the search for truths about nature as threatening. This became obvious in recent years, once the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project
Lawrence M. Krauss
· 10 min read