It has been a very strange year. Three weeks ago I opened my email to find an unsolicited email from a lawyer, asking if I needed help. Odd, I thought, since I couldn’t remember getting any traffic citations recently. When I opened it, I discovered it was from lawyers at the Foundation for Individual Rights … Continue reading “Of Academic Freedom and False Alarms”
Many, perhaps most, Americans are just now waking up to the meaning of “woke.” What does “woke” have to do with looting, bricks, fires, and blood in Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis? One asks oneself, “Am I woke (good)? Or not woke (evil)? How woke is woke, how much wokeness is enough, and who decides?” In … Continue reading “Woke Me When It’s Over”
After the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed, several departments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have released statements on their intention to fight systemic racism. In a petition, alumni of the political science department want it to “make serious efforts towards re-constituting the graduate program towards a more … Continue reading “Did You Know? 13 UNC Entities Push Out Diversity Statements”
On July 13, a dozen people from the Union Soldier Campaign protested to get leaders of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to drop “Tar Heels” as the school’s nickname. The group, led by UNC alumnus Willian Thorpe, claims that cheering for the “Tar Heels” is cheering “for the essence of white supremacy.” … Continue reading “Did You Know? Demands to Change the ‘Tar Heel’ Name”
A recent case of attempted silencing and censorship has roiled the field of political science. Two gender studies professors, Allison Howell of Rutgers University and Melanie Richter-Montpetit of the University of Sussex in the UK, wrote an interdisciplinary paper titled “Is securitization theory racist? Civilizationism, methodological whiteness, and antiblack thought in the Copenhagen School,” published … Continue reading “The Power of Denunciation in Political Science”
In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209 by an impressive 56-to-44 percent majority. Prop 209 amended the state’s constitution to prohibit the granting of preferences based on race or gender. It inaugurated a series of campaigns, led by businessman and University of California Regent Ward Connerly, that by 2006 had established similar prohibitions in 10 … Continue reading “Whither Race-Neutrality in California?”
The academy seems built for public controversy because professors are encouraged to question ideas and popular beliefs. It shouldn’t be surprising that academic outrage has a long history. In the past, scholars could find themselves in trouble, like Galileo, who defended Copernican astronomy and then proceeded to attack Pope Urban VIII, a position so unpopular … Continue reading “The Sociology of the Academic Outrage Mob”
Two recent British policy briefs on academic freedom and university reforms provide some broad suggestions applicable to colleges, British or otherwise. Policy Exchange, a center-right think tank, published “Academic Freedom in the UK: Protecting viewpoint diversity,” which highlights the disappearance of the conservative professor on campus. CIEO, a left-of-center think tank, published “Saving Britain’s Universities: … Continue reading “Did You Know? Two British Reforms America Should Copy”
I’m sometimes asked why it is so difficult for PhD students of a conservative bent to survive and flourish in history graduate programs these days. It’s not enough to say that conservative graduate students are red drops in a blue ocean, surrounded by people who hold political views antithetical to theirs. I have taught at … Continue reading “How to Renew Traditional Historical Study in Graduate Schools”
Fordham University student Austin Tong has found himself in hot water over a protest picture on Instagram. In it, he posed with a gun to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The private university in New York City found that Tong’s post, as well as another where he criticized the response of … Continue reading “Did You Know? Students, Faculty Punished for Speech on Social Media”