US: Fighting for Academic Freedom in Higher Education

Today we’re talking about academic freedom in higher education. What it is, why it’s at risk, and what’s at stake for democracy when this particular freedom is eroded. We explore why academic freedom is so threatening to existing hierarchies, why it’s so hard to explain academics to a broad audience, and what everyday people are doing to fight for the integrity of higher education.

Amy Reid is a senior manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program. PEN America is an organization that has been promoting free expression globally for over a hundred years. The Freedom to Learn team focuses on supporting higher education and academic freedom. She is currently on leave from New College of Florida. Find out more about Amy’s work at pen.org.

Isaac Kamola is an associate professor at Trinity College in Connecticut. He focuses on the political economy of higher education, African anticolonial theory, and critical globalization studies. He is also director of the American Association of University Professor’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and founder of Faculty First Responders, a program that monitors right-wing attacks on academics and provides resources to help faculty members and administrators respond to manufactured outrage. Follow Isaac on x @isaac_kamola. 

Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.