Academic Freedom Reading List

Academic Freedom Reading List

We have assembled this curated list of readings for those interested in learning more about academic freedom. These readings can also be used to expand or customize the academic freedom module.

 

AAUP Statements

• AAUP, “1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure.
• AAUP, “1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure; with 1970 Interpretive Comments.”
• AAUP, “Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities,” 1966.
• AAUP, “Freedom in the Classroom.” Academe, 54-61. September-October 2007.

AAUP Committee Reports 

The AAUP has published many reports chronicling attacks on academic freedom in different forms. Including any of these three reports in a class would provide the opportunity to discuss how systemic pressures on academic institutions weaken academic freedom.

• AAUP, “Special Report: COVID-19 and Academic Governance.” May 2021.
• AAUP, “Report of a Special Committee: Governance, Academic Freedom, and Institutional Racism in the University of North Carolina System.” April 2022.
• AAUP, “Report of a Special Committee: Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System.” December 2023.

• AAUP, “Academic Freedom and Tenure: Muhlenberg College (Pennsylvania),” April 2025.

   

Historical Background on Academic Freedom

• Finkin, Matthew W. and Robert C. Post, For the Common Good: Principles of American Academic Freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press. 2009.
• O’Neil, Robert. Academic Freedom in the Wired World: Political Extremism, Corporate Power, and the University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2008.
• O’Neil, R. M. “Academic Freedom: Past, Present, and Future.” In M. N. Bastedo, P. G. Altbach, & P. J. Gumport (Eds.), American higher education in the twenty-first century: Social, political and economic challenges (4th ed., 35–59). Johns Hopkins University Press. 2016.
• Reichman, Henry. Understanding Academic Freedom, second edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025.
• Ruth, Jennifer and Ellen Schrecker. “Academic Freedom.” [This essay is excerpted from the forthcoming book University Keywords, edited by Andy Hines. Copyright 2025. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press.]
• Scott, Joan. Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
• Scott, Joan W. “On Free Speech and Academic Freedom,” Journal of Academic Freedom, Vol. 9, 2017.

 

Academic Freedom and Free Speech

• Post, Robert. “The Classic First Amendment Tradition Under Stress: Freedom of Speech and the University,” Yale Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 619, 2017.

• Bérubé, Michael, and Jennifer Ruth. It's not free speech: race, democracy, and the future of academic freedom. JHU Press, 2022.

   

Academic Freedom and Contingent Faculty

• Reichman, Henry R, “Do Adjuncts Have Academic Freedom? Or Why Tenure Matters,” Academe, Winter 2021.
• Gilmore, Shawn, “Are We Really Supporting the Inclusion of Contingent Faculty in Governance?,” Academe, Fall 2021.

 

Academic Freedom and Medical Schools

• AAUP, “Academic Freedom in the Medical School,” June 1999.
• Colby, Glenn, “Data Snapshot: Tenure and Contingency in US Medical Schools,” Academe, Fall 2023.

 

Academic Freedom and Political Repression

• Schrecker, Ellen, “Political Repression and the AAUP from 1915 to the Present,” Academe, Fall 2023.
• American Studies Association, “Resolution on Defending Academic Freedom Against Attacks on 'Critical Race Theory'" Feb 10, 2022.

• Butler, Judith. “Endangered Scholarship, Academic Freedom, and the Life of Critique.” Critical Times, vol. 5, no. 2, 399-425. 2022.

   

Academic Freedom in the Global Context

• Darian-Smith, Eve. Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2025.
• Douglass, John Aubrey (ed). Neo-Nationalism and Universities: Populists, Autocrats, and the Future of Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2021.
• Ndasauka, Yamikani and Garton Kamchedzera (eds).  Academic Freedom in Africa: The Struggle Rages On. Oxon: Routledge. 2024.
• Popović, Milica, Liviu Matei, and Daniele Joly. Changing Understandings of Academic Freedom in the World in a Time of Pandemic. OSUN Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, Central European University. 2022.