February Update from the AFA
The AFA continues to monitor and provide legal resources in several cases, including Dr. Michael Joyner’s case against the Mayo Clinic and Kenderick Morales’s against Spelman College. Last month, we helped support a professor at a public institution in the western United States who faced unwarranted hurdles in obtaining approval for a research project. The matter was resolved to the professor’s satisfaction and the project is moving forward. We are also currently in the process of looking into multiple confidential matters to determine whether further action is warranted.
New Podcast Interview
Earlier this month, the AFA’s Keith Whittington sat down with Michael Berube and Jennifer Ruth to discuss their recent book, It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. Michael is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University. Jennifer is a professor of film at Portland State University. They both served as members of Committee A on academic freedom at the American Association of University Professors.
The pair explored whether extreme fringe views, such as implausible conspiracy theories, should be fair game to challenge a professor’s fitness to teach. Berube argued, “Free speech doesn’t have any intellectual standards to it – that’s why it’s free. Academic freedom does. The conflation of them was having some pretty pernicious consequences for allowing all manner of nonsense–left, right, etc.–to go on under the heading of academic freedom.”
As always with our podcasts, we don’t endorse the views of our guests, but we encourage you to give it a listen. You can find the series anywhere you get your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, Google, and Audible.
AFA Members on Fruitful Disagreement
AFA founding members Cornell West and Robert George held several discussions on their new book, Truth Matters: A Dialogue on Fruitful Disagreement in an Age of Division. Their book models robust intellectual engagement and civil discourse as they explore vital questions surrounding the idea of truth and its foundational role in our lives, whether in our universities or our individual lives as citizens. Learn more about their book here.
In appearances on The Michael Steele Podcast and Fox News Sunday, they discuss first impressions of each other and the importance of having your beliefs challenged by those you disagree with. “The only way we can hope to make any progress toward truth,” they shared, “is to allow ourselves to be challenged, to consider the best arguments, the best that has been thought and said on competing sides of issues. We have to be open to the possibility of learning from each other.”
Membership Updates
We added four new members since our last update for a total membership of 908. We would like to surpass 1000 this year and appreciate any and all recommendations from our current members that may help us meet that goal. Please send any nominations to AFA Director of Operations Howard Muncy at hmuncy@academicfreedom.org.
From time to time our members reach out to update their titles and institutional affiliations. Please visit our members page to view how you are currently listed. If you need to change your information, please contact Howard Muncy.