Heterodox Libraries Symposium
Current Symposium: Curiosity, Controversy, and Intellectual Courage | 23 May 24
[Closed] Call for Proposals
Keynote: Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath
HxLibraries Spring 2024 Symposium: Curiosity, Controversy, and Intellectual Courage
Abstract
“The truth defends itself”; for all others, there’s intellectual courage. Explore scholarship, teaching practices, and resources to enhance open inquiry and face controversy with intellectual courage in this HxLibraries Symposium. Hear from thought leaders including keynote speaker Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath, Samantha Harris, Esq., Dr. Tabia Lee, and Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, learn from your colleagues’ lightning talks, and participate in a facilitated book discussion of Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy. (The first 50 qualifying registrants receive a free e-copy!) (Thank you to Heterodox Academy for funding the distribution of complimentary copies of Cancel Wars to the first 50 qualifying registrants!)
Registration
Registration is now open for HxLibraries Spring 2024 Symposium! Register online via Google Forms. The first 50 qualifying registrants are eligible to receive a free Amazon Kindle e-book edition Thank you to Heterodox Academy for funding the distribution of complimentary copies of the common read title, Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy!
Speakers
Keynote: Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath
MRMJJ Presidential Professor | University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education | Faculty Director, SNF Paideia Program
Dr. Ben-Porath studies schools and colleges as democratic institutions. She received her doctorate in political philosophy from Tel Aviv University in 2000. She was a fellow at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, at Harvard’s Safra Center, and at the Institute for Advanced Studies. She has been with Penn since 2004. She is an associate member of the political science department and the philosophy department at Penn.
Dr. Ben-Porath is interested in democratic theory and practice, and studies the ways institutions like schools and colleges can sustain and advance democracy. She is the author of the symposium common read title, Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy.
Learn more about Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath.
Invited Panelists
Samantha Harris, Esq.
Partner | Allen Harris Law
Samantha Harris has dedicated her career to protecting free speech and civil liberties. Her advice has guided students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys on issues of free speech and due process on campus for more than 15 years.
After graduating from Princeton University with an undergraduate degree in Politics, she went on to study law at the University of Pennsylvania. Following a federal clerkship and a brief stint as a litigation associate at Pepper Hamilton LLP, she joined the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. She now lectures regularly about student and faculty rights at campuses and conferences around the country.
Learn more about Samantha Harris, Esq.
Dr. Tabia Lee
Educational Sociologist | Dr. t. lee Educational Consultancy
Tabia Lee (known simply as "Lee") has contributed to the design, implementation, and evaluation of numerous educational and professional development programs.
In the late 90's she coined teacher ideology-in-practice and her Life Work is devoted to raising awareness about the ways that race, gender, and other ideologies influence and inform teaching practice.
Her commitment to teacher education and pedagogical design is grounded in her experience as a lifelong educator and a National Board Certified English, Civics, and Social Studies teacher in urban American public middle schools. She is director of Dr. t. lee Educational Consultancy, a senior fellow at Do No Harm Medicine, and a founding member on the board of directors at Free Black Thought.
Lee holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration from University of California, Irvine, a Master of Arts in Education (Curriculum and Instruction, Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development) from University of Phoenix, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology (Social Deviance) from University of California, Davis.
Learn more about Dr. Tabia Lee.
Dr. Beatriz Villarroel
Assistant Professor | Astrophysics | Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics
Principal Investigator | VASCO Project | ExoProbe
Dr. Beatriz Villarroel is an assistant professor of astrophysics at Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics, Stockholm University. She holds a PhD in astronomy and a Masters degree in physics, both from Uppsala University. Her research interests include The Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations project (VASCO), the structure and coevolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies, and optical searches for extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). She is the principal investigator for the newly started ExoProbe project, that aims to search for extraterrestial artifacts and probes in Earth’s vicinity.
In 2021, Beatriz Villarroel received the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science national prize in Sweden for the VASCO project. In 2022, she was the first Swede to win the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science “International Rising Talents”, where the top 15 female early-career scientists are awarded the international prize among more than 250 national/regional prize winners globally. In 2023, she gave a TEDx talk in Zurich “Why we should look for alien artifacts,” and an invited talk at the Sol Foundation’s inaugural meeting at Stanford University.
Villarroel was recognized with the Heterodox Academy 2023 Courage Award “for the person who has demonstrated consistent courage in pursuing truth, and embodies bravery in championing the principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in the academy despite social and professional costs.”
Learn more about Dr. Beatriz Villarroel.
Schedule
Thursday, May 23rd, 2024
10am - 4pm U.S. Central Time (convert time zone)
Tentative schedule - subject to change!
10-10:15 || Welcoming remarks || HxLibraries
10:15-11:45 || Invited Panel
Dr. Beatriz Villarroel
Samantha Harris, Esq.
Dr. Tabia Lee
11:45-12:15 || Break
12:15-1:15 || Lightning Talks
Mark Lenker, “Intellectual Humility and Research Confidence: Encouraging Undergraduates”
Edward Remus, “Curating a Viewpoint-Diverse Panel Discussion of the Political Status of Puerto Rico at a Hispanic-Serving Institution”
Michael Q. Dudley, “Foreclosed Inquiry and Intellectual Virtues in the Shakespeare Authorship Debate”
Randy Souther, “The Cost of ‘Free Black Thought’”
Kristin Antelman, “Respecting Privacy of Thought in DEI Training”
1:15-1:45 || Break
1:45-2:30 || Keynote || Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath
2:30-2:45 || Break
2:45-3:45 || Cancel Wars Book Discussion || facilitated by HxLibraries
Access the book discussion guide, Experiments in the Laboratory of Democracy
3:45-4 || Closing remarks || HxLibraries
Full Description
HxLibraries Spring 2024 Symposium: Curiosity, Controversy, and Intellectual Courage
“The truth defends itself”; for all others, there’s intellectual courage. Explore scholarship, teaching practices, and resources to enhance open inquiry and face controversy with intellectual courage in this HxLibraries Symposium. Hear from thought leaders including keynote speaker Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath, Samantha Harris, Esq., Dr. Tabia Lee, and Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, learn from your colleagues’ lightning talks, and participate in a facilitated book discussion of Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy. (The first 50 registrants receive a free e-copy!) (Thank you to Heterodox Academy for funding the distribution of complimentary copies of Cancel Wars to the first 50 qualifying registrants!)
Studying, teaching, or otherwise expressing controversial views poses the risk of censorship, censure, or ostracism; in a word, cancellation. Faculty and students fear campus cancel culture, which then-undergraduate student Emma Camp characterized as “strict ideological conformity.” Fifty-nine percent of students report self-censoring in class; of those, sixty-two percent do so out of fear of negative reactions or retribution from classmates outside of class, according to Heterodox Academy’s 2022 Campus Expression Survey. The Knight Foundation reports that sixty-five percent of students agree that the climate on their campus prevents some people from saying what they believe because others might find it offensive. A University of Wisconsin report suggests that these fears are not unfounded, as fifty-eight percent of students agree that a classmate should be reported to university administrators for saying something in class that others feel causes harm to certain groups of people.
Recent reporting by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) finds that more than a third of faculty self-censor out of concern for how students, colleagues, or administrators might respond to their views, and more than half are concerned about professional repercussions stemming from protected speech acts. The National Association of Scholars reports nearly 300 academic cancellations since 2020, and FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire initiative tracks more than one thousand cases since 2000.
Campus cancel culture has also come to the attention of alumni and trustees and the public. In a 2022 survey by FIRE, nearly 6 in 10 Americans view cancel culture as a threat to freedom, and a quarter of survey respondents admit self-censoring for fear of professional or social consequences. The public’s concern about cancel culture further contributes to declining trust in higher education. While some call into question the very premise of cancel culture, regarding it as a myth, moral panic, or misappropriation of accountability culture, others claim to empirically demonstrate the reality of campus cancel culture.
This symposium joins with other efforts to teach and promote civil dialogue on college campuses by examining curiosity and intellectual courage as epistemic virtues in the pursuit of open inquiry and idea-sharing. Join us to inspire your own intellectual courage in the face of potential controversy as you explore where curiosity – and evidence and reasoning – would lead. We’ll hear from Dr. Sigal Ben-Porath, Samantha Harris, Esq., Dr. Tabia Lee, and Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, along with contributed lightning talks and a facilitated book discussion of Cancel Wars: How Universities Can Foster Free Speech, Promote Inclusion, and Renew Democracy.
Call for Proposals: Lightning Talks / Papers
The call for proposals is now closed. Thank you for your interest!
Lightning talk proposals were anonymously reviewed by a panel of four HxLibraries members using a rubric to assess relevance to theme, content, scholarly or practical merit, viewpoint diversity, and mechanics. Our proposal acceptance rate for the 2024 Spring Symposium was 38%.
Accepted talks are announced in the symposium schedule. We hope you’ll join us for the HxLibraries Spring 2024 Symposium, Curiosity, Controversy, and Intellectual Courage, on Thursday, May 23, 2024 from 10-4 US Central time!
Heterodox Libraries (HxLibraries) seeks proposals for lightning talks / papers for our FREE virtual spring 2024 symposium, Curiosity, Controversy, and Intellectual Courage, on May 23, 2024 10am - 4pm CT.
Submissions should demonstrate how the proposed lightning talk / paper will address the symposium theme of curiosity, controversy, and intellectual courage. Presenters may share research (or research-in-progress), pedagogy and teaching examples, or other practical applications related to the theme. Topics of interest include:
Curiosity, intellectual courage, or other intellectual virtues
Civil dialogue and constructive disagreement
Open inquiry and viewpoint diversity
Campus climate for freedom of expression
'Cancellation' and cancel culture resilience
Proposal abstracts of up to 250 words are due Friday, January 19th, 2024. Proposals will be refereed. Notifications will be sent in February 2024.
Lightning talks will be delivered via Zoom. Completed lightning talks / papers should not exceed 1200 words or 10 spoken minutes.
Copyright / recording / open license note: If accepted, presenters will be asked to sign releases to record their talks and to include written or transcribed versions in the open-licensed symposium proceedings.
Acknowledgements
This project is supported in full by Heterodox Academy. The opinions expressed at this event (or through such activities) are those of the individual Grantees, organizers, speakers, presenters, and attendees of such events / activities and do not necessarily reflect the views of Heterodox Academy.
Proceedings
Curiosity, Controversy, and Intellectual Courage HxLibraries Symposium, Spring 2024 proceedings and session recordings are available via Penn State Pressbooks.
Past Symposia
Fall 2023: Intellectual Virtues and the Contemporary Information Landscape with Dr. Jason Baehr
Spring 2023: You Can’t Have Social Justice Without Intellectual Freedom with Dr. Emily Knox
Fall 2022: Democratic Virtues with Dr. Christopher Beem
Summer 2022: Scout Mindset book club with Julia Galef
Spring 2022: Library Neutrality as Public Service in Liberal Democratic Governance with Michael Q. Dudley and John Wright
Winter 2022: 4IR Technologies and Libraries with Susan Anderson
Spring 2021: Intellectual Freedom and Alternative Priorities in Library & Information Science Research with Gabriel J. Gardner
About the HxLibraries Symposium
Modeled on the Heterodox Canada Symposium, the HxLibraries Symposium is an opportunity for participants to explore ideas related to library theory and practice, information science, and information culture.
Most symposia are one hour long beginning with remarks from a keynote speaker (25-30 mins.) followed by small group discussion (15-20 mins.) and concluding with Q&A (15 mins.).
Beginning in spring 2024, HxLibraries is offering an expanded, full-day symposium format including a keynote lecture, invited panelists, lightning talks, and a common read book discussion.
To propose a symposium or for more information, please contact Sarah Hartman-Caverly at smh767@psu.edu.