Academic freedomWork Group 2

Tatyana BajenovaJanja Komljenovic

Miguel LimTore Bernt Sorensen

Chris MuellerleileJana Bacevic

Background and context

• Academic freedom one of key terms in the debates and discussions around higher education

• Salient issue for the relationship between universities, the state, and the public sphere

• Regulates the work and working lives of academics• Raises other issues (relationship to other human

rights/freedoms, limitations to freedom of expression, distinction between “public” and “private” engagement of academics…)

Illustration: The Salaita Case• Tenured professor at Virginia Tech—offered job at U of

Illinois, 2014• His appointment is publicized by the University• As late as July, 2014, U of I defends Salaita’s public

comments• Job “offer” revoked in late August 2014 citing AF of

students• Center for Constitutional Rights defends the case

saying it “constitutes ‘viewpoint discrimination,’ a violation of the First Amendment, and also threatens academic freedom by punishing a faculty member for speaking as a citizen on a critical issue”

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Questions

• Who defines academic freedom?• Who owns academic freedom?• Who exercises academic freedom?• In what time and place? (context, context,

context )• Is it positively or negatively defined?• Normative or descriptive?• What are the limits of/boundaries to academic

freedom?

For a “broader” concept of academic freedom? (Butler 2006)

Pros Cons“Weak” liberal concept of academic freedom cannot provide sufficient protection for the freedom/right to be exercised

Embededness in other regimes or discourses of human rights; cannot expect specific provisions to extend universally

Freedom should extend beyond cases where subjects are free to move and have sufficient material conditions

Principled defense allows to distinguish between individuals, not only institutions

Allows for defending against extremist attitudes in and off campus

“Balance of views”

Main points for discussion

• Tensions between general approaches and decisions on a case-to-case basis

• Relationship between AF and power (of the state, but also of individuals to exercise it)

• Balance of views vs. unacceptable views• Role of material conditions (neoliberalism

comparable with Occupation?)• Tensions between expectations for academic

engagement and academic freedom (requirements of the genre, e.g. Tweeting)