Table of Contents

FIRE’s Lukianoff in United Kingdom to Discuss Threats to Academic Freedom

This week, FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff is in the United Kingdom to talk about global threats to free speech and academic freedom. You can catch Greg at Index on Censorship’s debate on academic freedom and summer magazine launch party on Wednesday, July 1, or at author and columnist Virginia Postrel’s talk at the London School of Economics on Thursday, July 2.

As Index on Censorship describes in the summer issue of its magazine, there are many threats to academic freedom and free speech worldwide. And as Greg writes in his newest piece at The Huffington Post, it’s important to remember that these freedoms are also in jeopardy here in the United States.

College and university administrators are increasingly punishing professors’ expression, even when it’s off-campus speech on personal blogs or social media accounts. For example, at Marquette University, a tenured professor is facing termination for posting a blog entry criticizing a graduate student instructor who told a student not to oppose same-sex marriage in a philosophy class discussion.

Although the administrative crackdown on professor speech is significant, Greg points out that the greatest threat to academic freedom may be from the Department of Education and its extreme federal overreach, as recently illustrated by Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis’s lengthy Title IX investigation.

Join Greg in signing on to Index on Censorship’s open letter on protecting academic freedom. And head over to The Huffington Post to read Greg’s whole piece and learn more about the threats to academic freedom both worldwide and here in the U.S.

Recent Articles

FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.

Share