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Now accepting proposals for FIRE’s 2019 Faculty Conference

I’m very pleased to announce that after two highly successful faculty conferences in 2017 and 2018, FIRE will be hosting a third conference for faculty this fall. Our 2019 conference will take place in Boston, Massachusetts, from Oct. 31–Nov. 2, 2019.

FIRE seeks proposals from faculty and graduate students in all disciplines on topics concerning academic freedom and freedom of expression in American higher education. Prospective applicants are encouraged to check out the paper volumes from our 2017 and 2018 conferences for a sense of the conference’s general scope.

In 2019, we’re also hoping to attract proposals not only showcasing academic research, but examining the academic profession itself. As our call for proposals states:

For our 2019 conference, FIRE is additionally interested not only in presenting academic research, but in examining the academic profession itself and the infrastructure supporting academic research and discovery. Recent academic controversies and trends have presented new challenges to longstanding pillars of academic research such as Institutional Review Boards and the peer review process. The internet and social media have diversified the outlets available for faculty to disseminate their research and offer commentary, while at the same time those outlets have frequently been weaponized to stifle faculty voices and threaten academic research. Tenure remains vulnerable and available to few, and faculty expertise is frequently overridden from within the university and viewed with hostility from without. What other fault lines might exist? How well does the academic process work at protecting academic freedom? We welcome papers exploring this issue from a variety of perspectives.

The full text of the call for proposals is available here.

Faculty whose papers are selected for presentation will receive an honorarium of $3,000, in addition to reimbursement for travel and lodging.

UPDATE: The application deadline for those interested in presenting is now June 10, 2019, and applicants will be notified of FIRE’s decisions later in June.

FIRE will be releasing further information on the conference in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to our website and social media accounts for the latest. Faculty are additionally encouraged to check out our faculty resources page and sign up for our faculty network for the latest news and opportunities.

We look forward to reviewing your proposals and hope to see you in Boston this fall! If you have any questions about applying for or attending the conference,  email us at facultyconference@thefire.org.

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