IRW Seminar

Feminism, Academic Freedom, and Democracy

The American Association of University Professors defines academic freedom as “the freedom of a teacher or researcher in higher education to investigate and discuss the issues in his or her academic field, and to teach and publish findings without interference from administrators, boards of trustees, political figures, donors, or other entities.” Many scholars have suggested that academic freedom and democracy exist in a symbiotic relationship, with democracy constituting a necessary precondition for academic freedom and academic freedom serving as “one of the checks and balances of a democratic system.” Yet scholarship that addresses the relationship between academic freedom and democracy from a feminist perspective or considers how preexisting conclusions about the relationship between academic freedom and democracy might be complicated by gendered knowledge remains limited. At a time when critical thinking is under attack worldwide and with a scope that ranges from the global to the local, our seminar will explore how feminist pedagogy and scholarship can help recast academic freedom more inclusively, (re)build democracy, and articulate new political imaginaries.

 

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