Category: Academic Freedom

Academic Freedom

University of Cape Town vs. Free Speech

November 6, 2026

Mark Oppenheimer, a lawyer in South Africa whom readers may know as the co-host of the popular Brain in a Vat philosophy podcast, is…
Academic Freedom

Faculty Sues University over Plato-Banning Policy

August 5, 2026

Texas A&M is being sued by a group of professors and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas over a policy that led to,…
Academic Freedom

“I’m much less concerned about how people react to me”

June 29, 2026

That was part of Rebecca Tuvel’s answer to a question from journalist Evan Goldstein about “the benefits of almost getting canceled.”
Academic Freedom

Russia’s Political Persecution of a Philosopher: Further Details (guest post)

May 29, 2026

Earlier this week, it was reported that Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats was placed under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other…
Academic Freedom

Russian Government Investigating Institute of Philosophy

May 25, 2026

Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats is under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the…
Academic Freedom

Judge Orders Texas State to Reinstate Robinson

May 11, 2026

A federal court judge ruled today that Texas State University must reinstate philosopher Idris Robinson, whom the university fired from his assistant professorship over…
Academic Freedom

Free Speech Fine Against Sussex Following Philosopher’s Resignation Overturned

April 29, 2026

About a year ago, the UK government’s Office for Students (OfS) (whose “free speech czar” is philosopher Arif Ahmed) levied a fine of £585,000 on…
Academic Freedom

Letter Supporting Fired Texas State Philosophy Professor and Boycott of University

April 23, 2026

Last month it was reported that Idris Robinson, a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy at Texas State University, is suing several university officials for…
Academic Freedom

Texas State Fires Philosophy Professor Over Off-Campus Talk on the Israeli-Palestine Conflict

March 25, 2026

Idris Robinson, a tenure-track assistant professor of philosophy at Texas State University, is suing several university officials for violating his constitutional rights after they…
Academic Freedom

Florida Implements Stronger Thought Policing

February 20, 2026

With measures borrowed from history’s totalitarian regimes, political leaders in Florida are taking unprecedented steps to indoctrinate students and prevent them from learning about…
Academic Freedom

Activism and the Pursuit of Knowledge

February 18, 2026

The pursuit of knowledge generates disagreement, including disagreement about how to pursue knowledge.
Academic Freedom

APA Joins Other Organizations in Calling for Texas A&M to Rescind Censorship Policies

February 12, 2026

The American Philosophical Association (APA) has signed onto to a letter by PEN America to the Texas A&M University System Regents “to request that…
Academic Freedom

Tenure to Be Eliminated at Many Public Colleges in Oklahoma

February 6, 2026

It appears that no new tenure-track hires will be made at public regional universities and community colleges in Oklahoma.
Academic Freedom

Texas A&M Administrators Will Cancel Your Course If You Don’t Tell Them Exactly Where And What Its Race And Gender Parts Are*

January 16, 2026

Texas A&M University (TAMU) administrators cancelled “Ethics in Public Policy,” a graduate course in the university’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, because…
Academic Freedom

Legalize Plato: The Shirt

January 8, 2026

In light of Texas A&M’s decision to tell a philosophy professor to remove readings by Plato from his course, one enterprising philosopher has come…
Academic Freedom

Texas Tech Chancellor Opposes Freedom, Endorses Inefficiency

December 3, 2025

Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton, in a memo yesterday to the presidents of the universities in the system, announced a policy to…
Academic Freedom

The Charade of Banning “Advocacy”

November 26, 2025

“Leaders at these institutions want to ban only certain topics from discussion. To do so, they have issued vague directives that no one knows…
Academic Freedom

Philosophers at Clemson Defend the Academic Freedom of Colleagues

September 24, 2025

Two philosophers at Clemson University, each in their own way, have responded to their employer’s punishment of faculty for their comments following the murder…
Academic Freedom

Speech under Authoritarianism (updated)

September 19, 2025

Governments in the United States are ramping up their attacks on freedom of speech, with state and federal officials getting people—including professors—fired or investigated…
Academic Freedom

Philosophy Grad Student from China Deported upon Arrival in US (updated)

September 2, 2025

A 22-year-old student from China who had traveled from China to Texas to study philosophy at the University of Houston was detained upon arrival…

Latest Comments

Jesse Crosson on Philosopher-led Team Nets $2.91 Million in Grants for Project on Safeguards of Liberalism
I am but a mere political scientist and interloper on this site; but, "conditions under which" is our specialty! A basic premise of this work is that any…
Reichenbach on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Yes. Many (myself included) had a Damascus moment about the poor health of philosophy when the Tuvel affair occurred. An utter and complete embarrassment for the field.
Felix on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
First, describing her views as anti-trans is incorrect. She’s not anti-trans. I believe that is called Wight-washing.
Felix on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Colin, yours is very much a "gamergate was about ethics in video games journalism" comment.
Colin Wight on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
It would help if facts mattered. First, describing her views as anti-trans is incorrect. She’s not anti-trans. Second, she wasn’t awarded the OBE for the content of her…
Mahmoud Jalloh on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
How does he do it? Just amazing.
Colin Wight on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
“We should not use that freedom to harm people”. Is it suggested that Stock intentionally set out to harm trans people? Or, that certain positions Stock holds (one…
Felix on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
My characterization of your critique as amounting to indignation over the use of the "wrong" definitions was also based on footnote 5, where you claim that "in biology,…
Callie on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Felix, you acknowledge having read only the abstract, and from that you manage to conclude that the entire paper is question-begging. You then characterize the paper’s arguments, motivations,…
Mark Robert Taylor on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
That is a helpful response, thank you. I suppose then what I mean to ask is whether you think GC views now, going forward, ought to be ostracized…
Felix on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
That's Horribly Persecuted Philosopher, OBE. Don't you even read her columns in the papers?
Jimmy Doyle on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Chris, you make it sound as though you faced a stark choice between slandering a horribly persecuted philosopher and giving everyone the impression that you approved of the…
Jason Stanley on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
We have now had a decade of very powerful people whining about how terribly they have been oppressed and their speech chilled, and using this to represent themselves…
Meme on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
I think you’re ignoring a plausible implication of their comment, which I noted re: harm.
Felix on Major Threats to the Health of Philosophy, Real and Imagined (guest post)
Now, I’ll admit that the latter comment could be read more weakly (e.g., it’s about *valuable* scholarship). It's not just that it could be read like that; it's…