As the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom (CDAF) begins its third year, it continues to pursue its mission to develop practical resources and build strategic partnerships for those engaged in defending academic freedom; to communicate the value of academic freedom to wide audiences; and to produce original research that can serve as the evidentiary basis for this work.
One project CDAF has developed is the video interview series Faculty on the Front Lines. Spearheaded by documentary filmmaker Anna Feder, the series features AAUP members sharing firsthand experiences of repression and censorship. Visit http://www.aaup.org/faculty-on-the-front-lines to learn more about the project, including how to host a screening.
CDAF’s work also remains closely integrated with Faculty First Responders, a mutual-aid collective that provides direct support to scholars facing politically motivated harassment. Learn more at https://facultyfirstresponders.com/.
Keep an eye out for the forthcoming Academic Freedom Field Guide, a practical booklet for faculty members and other academic workers. Additional resources—including webinar recordings, sample syllabus language, teaching modules, and the Academic Freedom First Aid Kit—are available at www.aaup.org/cdaf.
CDAF has also partnered with AAUP activists in the South to coordinate a response to the Commission for Public Higher Education (discussed separately above), which would significantly alter the accreditation process.
The center hosts collaborative convenings with strategic partners, including a resource-sharing meeting for those combating censorship related to speech on Palestine and a working group supporting academic freedom committees within professional associations. CDAF is also developing a communications initiative to amplify members’ stories and present an alternative narrative about the role and value of higher education.
CDAF fellows have been engaged in a variety of research projects. A book edited by current fellows, Controlling Ideas: Academic Freedom, Governance, and Community in U.S. Higher Education, will soon go to press. The Academic Freedom on the Line Substack continues to address pressing topics. Finally, CDAF fellow Tim Cain, CDAF Director Isaac Kamola, and Anita Levy of the AAUP’s staff have collaborated with Bill Herbert and colleagues at the National Center for Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions to produce the first industry-wide survey of academic freedom protections in collective bargaining agreements (discussed above).