Attendees at the Heterodox Academy conference in New York participated in frank discussions about how to address complex issues from free speech to building community.
Two plenary panels at last week’s 2019 HxA Annual Conference took on issues of great importance in today’s academic landscape and posed means of addressing them.
In a session titled, “What Ideas Gain Entry into the Academy” panelists examined issues of free speech and how to engage a diverse range of viewpoints. The panelists discussed the distinction between academic freedom and free speech. Panelist Dr. Keith E. Whittington, the William Nelson Cromwell professor of politics at Princeton University, said academic freedom is addressed by scholarly inquiry. Free speech is the discourse on campus, which is not without complications.
Dr. Judith Shapiro, president and professor of anthropology emerita at Barnard College, referred people to the group Scholars at Risk, which works to promote scholars and protect academic freedom. She then addressed freedom of speech within the current world of information technology.
“The trouble with the world is not that people know so little, but that they know so many things that aren’t so,” she said. “This focus on invited speakers…we do have to think about.”
Concerns about speakers invited to campus was a theme throughout the session. Shapiro said it’s important to differentiate between the events at which a speaker would be speaking. A commencement speaker should be more inspirational, while someone presenting an evocative and perhaps controversial topic would be more appropriate in another setting.
Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of UC Berkeley, said if heterodoxy is to be embraced at public institutions, college officials have to take into account the heterogeneous campus population. It is important to invite people with opposing viewpoints, but administrators have to be aware of who they are and whether their missions are self-promotion or meaningful dialogue.
