Recent Goings-On
by Craig Gibson/Professional Development Coordinator/The Ohio State University Libraries/Drake Institute Faculty Fellow for Mentoring
This fall has seen a number of events—conferences, ceremonies, and public addresses—that showcase growing concerns about intellectual pluralism, academic freedom, and open inquiry in ways that implicate libraries and their ability to be sense-making institutions and principled contributors to scholarship, research, and civic dialogue.
Foremost among these is the recent Stanford Conference on Academic Freedom, a two-day event held at Stanford and hosted by the Graduate School of Business there. Originally a closed event only for invitees among well-known academics and public intellectuals who’ve influenced the ongoing discussion about academic freedom and freedom of expression, the conference immediately generated controversy because of its invited list of speakers. A few of them are genuinely controversial, but more are known for dissenting and heterodox views from the emerging monoculture found at many higher education institutions. This monoculture is based on new orthodoxies about identity essentialism and only certain perspectives on social justice. Among the keynote speakers were Jonathan Haidt, co-founder of the Heterodox Academy; Steven Pinker, celebrator of Enlightenment thought for the current times; and Lee Jussim, whose frequent take-downs of poorly conceived social science methodologies and research findings are found on his new substack Unsafe Science A number of panels addressed such topics as: Academic Freedom in STEM; Academic Freedom in Law and Legal Education; The State of Higher Education; The Economics of Academic Freedom; and even Academic Freedom: What is it For?.
Other notables speaking at the conference included Nadine Strossen, formerly President of the ACLU; and Greg Lukianoff, current present of FIRE, and co-author with Haidt of the widely influential Coddling of the American Mind. Disciplinary specialists included Anna Krylov, Professor of Chemistry at USC and fearless defender of academic freedom in STEM; and Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics and Director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason, and widely known for his Marginal Revolution blog and website. One panelist drew great attention for his work at Duke—John Rose, who is Director of the Civic Discourse Project there, with a course that teaches civic virtues to students as essential to democratic participation.
Because of widespread interest and the controversy generated by the conference, the original decision for a strictly closed event was changed to open it up via livestream. My own viewing of parts of the conference showed me that the speakers and audience members demonstrated a wide range of viewpoints about how best to preserve academic freedom and counter the growing monoculture and frequent self-censorship now found in the academy. The conference was marked by respectful disagreement that modelled open inquiry and viewpoint diversity. This conference surfaced many of the current challenges for academic freedom at least as many faculty understand them, though few specific recommendations emerged for the varied higher education landscape in North America.
The conference recordings are now available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@stanfordcli. In addition, the conference organizers, to accompany the conference, published an open letter on “Restoring Academic Freedom” with space for faculty and others to sign their names. This statement describes current conditions and practices in the academy that impinge on academic freedom and open inquiry, and offers suggestions for promoting both. Notably, the letter encourages academics, regardless of field of study, to join or support the Heterodox Academy, FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), the Academic Freedom Alliance, and ACTA (American Council of Trustees and Alumni). The open letter is available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_vTk2EPGqe_4pjj9KntQLKAKO8ZqfL0Pquj89TlazYA/edit
A second major event I was fortunate enough to listen to was the ACTA Award Ceremony for John McWhorter, who received the Merrill Award given by that organization to honor his long commitment to academic freedom. John McWhorter is an acclaimed scholar in linguistics but also a scholar of music and related arts, and most recently, a columnist for the New York Times. But he is probably best known for his outspoken and fearless defense of freedom of expression in matters relating to race, gender, and other aspects of identity—in the best classic liberal tradition. He gave a brief address (“Is the Program Free Speech Or Modernity? The Principles We Must Regain”) upon receiving the Merrill Award. His talk is well worth the listen for its wisdom in describing the excesses of identity politics and what we often refer to now as ultraprogressive cultural norms in the classroom, in higher ed generally, and in workplaces. His rousing admonition to the audience to think, write, and speak fearlessly about their own beliefs, and to search for truth even in the face of inconvenient facts and evidence, is in the best traditions of liberal learning. John’s address is on YouTube at:
Finally, I will mention two Heterodox Academy-sponsored events. One was our very own HxLibraries Fall Symposium, featuring Professor Chris Beem of Penn State, discussing his recently published The Seven Democratic Virtues: What You Can Do to Overcome Tribalism and Save our Democracy. His talk addressed current political and cultural polarization that creates great challenges for civil dialogue and consensus decision-making. He identified the intellectual and moral virtues needed for these times: intellectual humility, honesty, consistency, courage, temperance, and faith and charity. He offered numerous examples of tribal polarization and counter-examples of the virtues “in action” that may produce a more civil society. A recording of Chris’s talk is at: https://psu.mediaspace.kaltura.com/media/HxLibraries+Symposium+Fall+2022A+Democratic+Virtues+with+Christopher+Beem%2C+PhD/1_fusgvv24
Still another HxA-sponsored event, a Member Spotlight from HxA, featured Kevin Marinelli, Executive Director of the Program in Public Discourse, and communications scholar, at UNC-Chapel Hill. Kevin discussed approaches to public discourse, deliberation, and dialogue used at various higher ed institutions among students to encourage robust discourse and civic virtues across lines of difference. As with the virtues discussion in Chris Beem’s new book, the focus on virtues as key to citizenship emerges as key to student development, as they learn to think, speak, and participate in grappling with complex issues facing all citizens in a democracy. The recording of Kevin Marinelli’s talk is available on the HxA YouTube channel at:
Major points I emerged with from these events include:
· How can we enlarge the “Overton Window” for discussing and debating controversial and challenging issues in working with students, faculty, and community members, through our research support, teaching, and outreach initiatives?
· How do we work with campus leaders dedicated to promoting civic virtues, civil dialogue, and practices of good citizenship, in a more sustained, thoughtful, and programmatic way?
· How can we advance the works of scholars who are also public intellectuals and who therefore have a potentially wider impact on our campuses and in our communities, beyond acquiring their books and occasionally sponsoring talks by them?
· How can we honor important initiatives for diversity and inclusion but also promote viewpoint diversity and intellectual pluralism?
· How can we make libraries welcoming environments where intellectual pluralism is practiced in all programming, services, and interactions?