Episodes

  • Mitch Daniels on Promoting Campus Free Speech
    Sep 13 2022

    The AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Mitch Daniels, the outgoing president of Purdue University and former Republican Governor of Indiana. During his time at Purdue, President Daniels has carved out a national reputation as a leader on campus free speech issues. Daniels shares the principles and practices he has followed to dramatically improve Purdue's rating as a defender of academic freedom. The university most recently appeared at number three on FIRE's College Free Speech Rankings.

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    49 mins
  • A Conversation with Professor Eugene Volokh
    Jul 6 2022
    The AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Professor Eugene Volokh of the UCLA School of Law, where he teaches on the First Amendment. Volokh is also the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog. Whittington and Volokh discuss the recent Georgetown Law controversy involving Ilya Shapiro, and whether universities should take public positions on the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion. They also discussed the Kalven Report, a 1967 report from the University of Chicago on the relationship between academic freedom and the political neutrality of academic institutions.
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Protecting Controversial Speech On and Off Campus
    Apr 18 2022

    The AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Professor David Rabban of the University of Texas Law School, a member of the AFA's Academic Committee and former general counsel for the American Association of University Professors, about the importance of protecting both intramural and extramural speech. Drawing from recent high profile cases in which professors were sanctioned by their employers over statements made on social media and in podcast interviews, Whittington and Rabban explore how the principles of academic freedom apply to faculty both on and off campus, in their lives as scholars and as citizens.

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    1 hr and 27 mins
  • The Case for Tenure: A Rebuttal to Proposals in Texas
    Feb 23 2022
    In this special edition of the Academic Freedom Podcast, Keith Whittington interviews Matthew Finkin of the University of Illinois College of Law about the new proposals from Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to end tenure as we know it at state colleges and universities. In addition to ending tenure for new hires, the proposals would revoke tenure for professors who teach critical race theory and institute annual post-tenure reviews for all. The Academic Freedom Alliance said in a statement that the proposals would “strike at the very heart of the academic enterprise.” Matthew Finkin is a renowned expert on academic freedom and the author of multiple books, including The Case for Tenure. Listeners can learn more about the importance of tenure in Episode 6 of the Academic Freedom Podcast (published 10/20/21) on Georgia's Post-Tenure Review Policy, and by reading the AAUP’s 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure.
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    56 mins
  • Reaching Bipartisan Consensus on Campus Free Expression
    Feb 18 2022

    The AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Dan Cullen, Professor of Philosophy at Rhodes College. Professor Cullen was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Academic Freedom Task Force on Campus Free Expression, which recently published its report, Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap. In this wide ranging discussion, Whittington and Cullen cover key findings of the report, how those findings relate to recent controversies, and the most salient takeaways for universities and policymakers.

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    1 hr and 27 mins
  • On SUNY Fredonia, Moral Philosophy, and Forbidden Questions
    Feb 7 2022

    In this special edition of the Academic Freedom Podcast, the AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Jeff McMahan, the Sekyra and White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford, about the current controversy at SUNY Fredonia involving Professor Stephen Kershnar. An applied ethicist and distinguished teaching professor of philosophy, Prof. Kershnar has been placed under administrative review and barred from campus for conducting research and making statements in a YouTube interview about "adult-child sex."

    The Academic Freedom Alliance sent a letter to SUNY Fredonia in defense of Prof. Kershnar's academic freedom and partnered with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to draft an open letter from philosophy faculty in support of his right to tackle difficult questions.

    In this conversation, Whittington and McMahan explore not only the controversy itself, but also the larger questions surrounding what moral philosophers do, why they ask such controversial questions, and what value they bring to our understanding of society's most difficult issues.
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • The Fight for Academic Freedom at the University of Florida
    Jan 18 2022

    In October 2021, three University of Florida (UF) professors were told by the University's Conflict of Interest Office that they would not be allowed to be expert witnesses in a voting-rights lawsuit against the state, sparking an outcry over academic freedom. In this episode of the Academic Freedom Podcast, the AFA's Keith Whittington interviews two UF professors who were at the center of the faculty Senate's effort to push back on the decision. Raymond Issa is the chair of the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Freedom, which was set up to review the University's decision, and Danaya Wright is a member of the committee. They discuss the findings of the report released by the ad hoc committee in December.

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    58 mins
  • What Can We Learn from the Top Ranked College for Academic Freedom?
    Dec 16 2021

    The AFA's Keith Whittington interviews Hiram E. Chodosh, president of Claremont McKenna College. Under President Chodosh's leadership, Claremont McKenna has been widely recognized for its commitment to academic freedom. It was the recipient of the Institutional Excellence Award from the Heterodox Academy in 2019. For the past two years, it was the top ranked school in the free speech rankings by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

    President Chodosh previously served as Dean of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, where he was also the Hugh B. Brown Endowed Presidential Professor of Law and Senior Presidential Adviser on Global Strategy.
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    44 mins