Apply today to attend FIRE’s Faculty Conference!

We are pleased to officially invite faculty to apply to attend FIRE's 2017 Faculty Conference — the first conference in FIRE’s history exclusively for university faculty.

Taking place October 5–7, 2017, in downtown Dallas, Texas, the conference will bring together several dozen faculty from a variety of institutions and academic fields for a weekend of presentations and discussions of core issues affecting academic freedom and faculty rights.

Following FIRE’s highly successful call for proposals, we have selected a handful of outstanding faculty-authored papers for discussion, each of which will be accompanied by a faculty-led panel discussion. The many topics up for discussion at this fall’s conference include:

• the tensions between notions of free speech and academic freedom and issues of psychological harm and mental health, and their implications for higher education;
• the clash of student and faculty interests in the increasingly controversial practice of recording faculty lectures for viral distribution on social media;
• the evolution of students’ perception of freedom of speech and academic freedom; and,
• the current state of faculty activism, and how faculty can be better equipped to defend their rights in today’s academic climate.

Beyond these discussions, faculty will benefit from the invaluable experience of meeting and networking with several dozen of their peers from around the country, united by a shared interest in defending academic freedom and promoting rigorous intellectual discourse.

For faculty who are accepted to attend our conference, FIRE will offer a travel stipend of $750 to assist with the costs of travel and lodging.

Faculty are encouraged to apply to our conference as early as possible, before our limited number of spaces fill up! More information on the conference, including conference venues and hotel arrangements, can be found on our website, and interested faculty can email us at facultyconference@thefire.org with any questions.

Lastly, please stay tuned to FIRE for the announcement of our closing keynote address, coming shortly!

We’d love to see you in October, so be sure to apply today!