The Ironic Interplay of Free Speech and Silencing: Does Workplace Bullying Compromise Free Speech in Higher Education?

There is no free speech for those that have been bullied, especially if they have been silenced by non disclosure agreements.
This is not just in the education system, but also in all aspects in government and corporate business areas.

"Cultural diversity" includes across generations as well as social classes defined by incomes, skin color, dialect, etc. It is not uncommon for older faculty, especially retired but still active people, to be excluded from campus discussions, colloquia, participation in classes, and speaking with students. In my case, as a retired professor and one with much more broad research experience than younger anthropologists are likely to have had, I have been explicitly forbidden to speak with students, not acknowledged when I raised my hand in discussion after public lectures, told I should not "disrupt" by asking questions or making comments at such occasions, and in instance, physically pushed down as I attempted to make a comment (and on this occasion, I was by far the most experienced and well published scholar on the topic in the room). The present crisis in jobs in academia for anyone not in STEM fields, and the push to put courses online instead of maintaining faculty, produces a very tense, paranoiac atmosphere where faculty desperately attempt to be seen as "important" and silence by bullying, scholars with divergent experience and interpretations.