Upcoming Events
Stay tuned!
Past Events
Title VI and the War on Higher Education
Thursday, April 16, Zoom.
Join moderator Risa L. Lieberwitz, member of AAUP Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, and speakers Rana Jaleel, chair of AAUP Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, Anna Feder, AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, and Lara Deeb, co-chair of the MESA Task Force on Civil and Human Rights for a discussion of the current role of Title VI.
Storytelling for Solidarity: How to Energize Your Organizing with the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom’s "Faculty on the Front Lines" Interview Series
Friday, April 17, Zoom. Day of Action for Higher Ed
Anna Feder, producer of the "Faculty on the Front Lines" interview series, will join Corinna Mullin, a CUNY professor, organizer, and one of the reinstated 'fired four,' along with David Letwin, a Rutgers professor and union organizer. Together, they will talk about ways to address isolation, fear, and repression on campuses. The session will explore how storytelling can help build community, connect people through shared experiences, and support collective resistance.
Learn more about the project. Flyer here.
Forgotten Pasts and Alternative Futures--How to Build a College: Experimental Alternatives in the History of Higher Education
Monday, March 16, 2026, Zoom.
Join the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education, and Critical Legal Collective for the third in a virtual panel discussion series. Imaginative aspirations for new versions of higher education must grapple with material realities: funds, faculty and staff employment, land and buildings or online infrastructure, recruitment and support for students, and the question of accreditation. This webinar examines past examples of how others organized to make their alternative ideas into a tangible reality. Throughout the late-twentieth century, scholars, administrators, philanthropists, and legislators pursued experiments in higher ed. Their conceptualizations encompassed local community colleges, alternative learning programs, and colleges without majors where students designed their own learning. The histories of such endeavors provide insights and tools for contemporary efforts. The active, practical pursuit of alternatives to the current system has become urgent.
Flyer here. A recording of the event is available here.
Activism and the Struggle for Academic Freedom (In the Spirit of H. Chandler Davis)
Monday, February 23, 2026, Zoom.
Join editor Melanie S. Tanielian and contributors Marjorie Heins and Henry Reichman to discuss the release of In the Spirit of H. Chandler Davis: Activism and the Struggle for Academic Freedom. Inspired by Chandler Davis’ courage, integrity, and devotion to the struggle against oppression, injustice, and the persecution of speech, the twelve contributors to this book offer crucial insights into the importance of defending intellectual independence, institutional autonomy, and the right to free expression, and the importance of facing, and not accepting, authoritarian threats. Read more about the book here.
Flyer here. A recording of the event is available here.
Academic Freedom and International Institutions
Tuesday, January 27, 2026, Zoom
The series is co-hosted by the ISA’s Academic Freedom Committee and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. The ability to teach, research, and speak on issues of public importance without fear of retaliation is a cornerstone of what academics do. Without academic freedom and institutional autonomy, universities cannot serve the common good. However, today the rise of authoritarian movements and governments around the world has included deliberate and sustained attacks on academic institutions as well as the silencing of students, faculty, and staff. This webinar series initiates a conversation within the International Studies Association (ISA) about evolving threats to academic freedom around the world, how academic freedom is understood in different environments, and what can be done to defend academic freedom in an international context.
This second panel in the series explores academic freedom and international institutions. What academic freedom means varies around the world, often emerging from specific institutional and legislative contexts and legal structures. Likewise, different international and regional organizations have developed their own articulations of academic freedom. This panel examines how academic freedom is articulated by the American Association of University Professors, the United Nations, the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas, the signatories of the Magna Charta Universitatum, and the Kampala Declaration. The goal will be to discuss important similarities and differences among the various articulations of academic freedom, while thinking about how the International Studies Association–as a professional association with scholars around the world–might understand and engage its commitment to academic freedom at an associational level.
MODERATOR/CHAIR: Cecelia Lynch (ISA’s Academic Freedom Committee). PANELISTS: Bencharat Sae Chua (Director of Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom, lecturer at the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University), Isaac Kamola (Director of AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, professor of Political Science Trinity College), David Kaye (professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression), and Michael Lynk, (professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law, Western University, Ontario, former United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory).
A recording of the event is available here.
Responding to Threats to Academic Freedom Around the World
Tuesday, October 28, 2025, Zoom
This session is part of the Academic Freedom in an International Context Series, a series co-hosted by the International Studies Association’s Academic Freedom Committee and the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. The ability to teach, research, and speak on issues of public importance without fear of retaliation is a cornerstone of what academics do. Without academic freedom and institutional autonomy, universities cannot serve the common good. However, today the rise of authoritarian movements and governments around the world has included deliberate and sustained attacks on academic institutions as well as the silencing of students, faculty, and staff. This webinar series initiates a conversation within the International Studies Association (ISA) about evolving threats to academic freedom around the world, how academic freedom is understood in different environments, and what can be done to defend academic freedom in an international context.
This first panel in the series examines the evolving threats to academic freedom around the world. Speakers will examine global trends, including the rise of the radical Right (Abrahamsen, Drolet, et al. 2024), while others speak to what attacks on academic freedom look like within particular countries. The panel will focus on understanding the underlying international contexts that give rise to current attacks on academic freedom around the world, as well as what resources exist to support faculty and how academics have fought back to preserve academic freedom.
MODERATOR/CHAIR: Carolyn Shaw (Chair, ISA’s Academic Freedom Committee). PANELISTS: Audrey Truschke (Rutgers University), Andrea Petö (Central European University), and Kasia Kaczmarska (University of Edinburgh).
A recording of the event is available here.
Professional Liability Insurance and Legal Resources
Wednesday, October 8, 2025 Zoom
Join us for a virtual informational session with an AFT representative to learn more about the legal benefits and professional liability insurance available to AAUP members. It provides liability protection for claims or charges arising out of the employment activities of insured members, for example charges brought by a student or parent that an AAUP-AFT member has denied their Constitutional rights or committed libel, slander, invasion of privacy, or a criminal act.
An edited recording of the event is available here.
Forgotten Pasts and Alternative Futures: Indigenous Nations and Higher Education
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 Zoom
Join us for the second in a series of virtual panel discussions co-sponsored by CDAF, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education, and Critical Legal Collective. The conversation will be moderated by Jeremiah Chin, professor of law at the University of Washington, and will explore how Indigenous nations can provide a source of counter-sovereignty for functions of educational governance historically overseen by the federal government. Panelists include Eva Flying, president of Chief Dull Knife College, Megan Bang, professor of learning sciences at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy, Sandy Grande, professor of political science and Native American and Indigenous studies at University of Connecticut, Amanda Tachine, professor of educational studies at University of Oregon, and Bryan Brayboy, professor of earth systems science for anthropocene at Northwestern University.
A recording of the event is available here.
The Academic Freedom Syllabus
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 Zoom
Join Isaac Kamola, director of the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, for an overview of teaching resources, sample syllabus language, and a curricular module that can be incorporated into a graduate seminar, undergraduate class, professional development course, new faculty orientation, or campus discussion group.
A recording of the event is available here.
Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters by Eve Darian-Smith
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 Zoom
Darian Smith (distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Global Studies and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine and fellow at the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom) will be joined by a number of experts to discuss her recent book, Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters. Panelists include: Camilla Croso (executive director, Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas), Karin Fischer (senior writer, Chronicle of Higher Education), Milica Popović (senior postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Culture Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences and former project lead at Global Observatory on Academic Freedom, Central European University in Vienna), Barrett Taylor (professor and coordinator of higher education, University of North Texas, fellow at the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom), and Jeremy Young (senior advisor, American Association of Colleges & Universities). The discussion will be moderated by Isaac Kamola (director of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of political science at Trinity College).
A recording of the event is available here.
Higher Education: Forgotten Pasts and Alternative Futures–Lessons from the CUNY Experience
Monday, April 28, 2025 Zoom
This is the first in a series of virtual panel discussions co-sponsored by Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education, Critical Legal Collective, and the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.
Panelists include American historian and author, Dr. Ellen Schrecker, professor of economics and political science at Brooklyn College and John Jay College, CUNY, Dr. Corrina Mullin, and undergraduate CUNY student, Musa Kareem. The conversation is moderated by Professor Chaumtoli Huq, professor of law at CUNY School of Law and will explore the history of support for higher education as a public good, with free or very low tuition, including a close look at the example of the City University of New York (CUNY), past and present.
A recording of the event is available here.
National Day of Action: The Antidote to Repression is Information
Thursday, April 17, 2025 Zoom
Join the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom for a session on mapping the landscape of resources and allies in the fight against the sweeping repression that began years ago and has metastasized at an alarming rate at colleges and universities nationwide. What started as right-wing attacks on DEI and affirmative action have seen largely bi-partisan support in the crackdown on advocacy and action in support of Palestinian liberation. We invite you all to collaborate as we share this project in process and hear what resources would be most valuable to our comrades in higher education and the best ways to make that information useful.
A recording of the event is available here.
In Defense of Academic Freedom and the Future of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Wednesday, April 2, 2025, Zoom
This webinar is cohosted by the National Women's Studies Association and focuses on thinking about academic freedom in a more capacious way in order to address academia's responses to the anti-DEI/Trump administration policies, how the university reproduces and sustains -isms, and conditions of possibility in our resistive work.
Panelists:
- Isaac Kamola, director of the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and Associate Professor of Political Science at Trinity College
- Karma R. Chávez, Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and Chair of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
- Rana Jaleel, Associate Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis and Chair of the AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure
- Moderated by: Liz Montegary, fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of Women's, Gender, & Sexuality studies at Stony Brook University
A recording of the event is available here.
Academic Freedom School: Defending Academic Freedom in Florida; webinar series
This webinar series is designed to create an ongoing conversation about the threats to academic freedom experienced by faculty in Florida’s public college and university system. This four-part series focuses on different aspects of how state legislation and other political interference have undermined academic freedom and share strategies on how faculty can push back against these attacks.
This series is co-sponsored by UFF, an affiliate of AFT, and the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.
Panel #4: Chilling Extramural Speech in Florida: Legislation, Faculty and Student Intimidation, and Campus Restrictions
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
The proliferation of bills targeting higher education has had the cumulative effect of chilling campus speech. This takes place inside as well as outside the classroom. This panel talks about how faculty experience intimidation, how campuses have interpreted legislation in ways that amplify this chilling effect, and campus restrictions on protest and speech that have been adopted. This panel looks specifically at how these attacks on speech have been experienced specifically by faculty speaking out concerning the Palestine/Gaza conflict.
Panelists:
- Tariq Habash, founder and director of A New Policy, former policy advisor at the US Department of Education, Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundation, and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom
- Bryn Taylor, PhD candidate and former co-president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida
- Moderated by: Eli Meyerhoff, visiting scholar and program coordinator at Duke University's John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom
A recording of the event is available here.
Defending Academic Freedom In the Era of Trump 2.0
Friday, January 24, 2025; Hilton Hotel, Capitol Hill, 525 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington DC
This workshop brings together fellows at the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom with local advocates and AAUP activists. The event is organized around exploring the unique threats posed by the incoming Trump administration and how we can organize to defend and advance higher education during this troubling time.
Please see full schedule here.
A recording of the event is available here.
Panel 1 (00:01-1:29--1 hr. 28 min.); Keynote (1:29-2:10--40 min.); Panel 2:10-3:38--1 hr 28 min.)
Academic Freedom School Panel #3: "Countries of Concern": Impacts on Florida Universities and Strategies for Faculty
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, Zoom
Florida universities, such as Florida International University, have been forced to end partnerships with Chinese universities. FIU is ending several such partnerships as a result of legislation that regulates an institution’s relationship with “countries of concern.” This panel examines the origins of this legislation, the effect it is having on existing academic partnerships, and what Florida’s faculty members can do to navigate these regulations.
Panelists:
- Racqueal Legerwood, fellow in China Research and Advocacy at Amnesty International, USA
- Meera Sitharam, professor of computer science and affiliate professor of mathematics at University of Florida
- Yuxuan Wang, professor of physics at University of Florida
Moderated by: Eve Darian-Smith, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Studies & International Studies at the University of California, Irvine and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom
A recording of the event is available here.
Responding to Campaigns of Intimidation and Harassment, webinar
Wednesday, December 4, 2024, Zoom
Faculty increasingly face the threat of organized campaigns of intimidation and harassment aimed at their research and teaching. This disconcerting trend has included everything from a wave of complaints about classroom topics manufactured by partisan operatives to Freedom of Information (FOI) fishing expeditions, manufactured plagiarism accusations, weaponized campus complaint processes, and other efforts designed to discredit faculty teaching and research. The webinar provides an understanding of these evolving threats while also providing concrete ways that teachers and researchers across higher education institutions can proactively respond.
Panelists:
- Jo Boaler, the Nomellini and Olivier Professor of education, mathematics, in the graduate school of education at Stanford University).
- Sachin S. Pandya, professor of law at the University of Connecticut
- Rebekah Tromble, director, Institute for Data Democracy & Politics and professor, School of Media & Public Affairs and at the George Washington University
Moderated by: Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of political science at Trinity College, CT
Academic Freedom School Panel #2: Political Interference on Florida's Higher Ed Curriculum and How to Push Back
Wednesday, November 13, 2024, Zoom
A number of recent bills have been introduced in Florida that seek to shape the curriculum. Examples range from the “Stop WOKE” Act (HB 7), the delisting of “Principles of Sociology” as part of the core curriculum, and calls by Republican politicians to review university curricula to identify antisemitism. This session examines the intersecting laws that seek to shape what can and can’t be taught in the college classroom, what rights faculty actually do have, and how the academic freedom to determine what can be taught in the classroom can be better protected.
Panelists:
- Robert Gallagher, professor of sociology and human services and human services program manager at Broward College
- Darlene Mosley, professor of psychology at Pensacola State College and executive board member of PSCFA
- Katie Rainwater, professor of Global and Sociocultural Studies at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University and membership chair of UFF-FIU
- Martha Schoolman, professor and director of the MA in English at Florida International University and UFF-FIU chapter council member
Moderated by: Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of political science at Trinity College, CT
Academic Freedom School Panel #1: Post-Tenure Review in Florida: Can Collective Bargaining Protect Academic Freedom?
Wednesday, October 16, 2024, Zoom
Passed in 2022, SB 7044 required the Board of Governors to institute a post-tenure review policy. The policy adopted by the Board of Governors in 2023—Regulation 10.003—locates the review of faculty primarily with the administration. This panel examines the AAUP policies on tenure and post-tenure review, examines how Florida policy violates these protections of academic freedom, and the effect these policies are having on faculty in Florida. The panel also looks at how collective bargaining agreements and institutions of shared governance might be used to better protect faculty from dismissal.
Panelists:
- Jennifer Proffitt, Theodore Clevenger Professor of Communication at Florida State University and co-chief negotiator of the most recent FSU contract
- Risa Lieberwitz, former general counsel of the AAUP and professor of labor and employment law at Cornell University
Moderated by Tim Cain (professor of higher education at the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia and fellow at the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom).
A recording of the event is available here.
Understanding the Evolving Threats to Academic Freedom: A Panel Discussion
Friday, September 13, 2024, 4:15–6:30 pm. ET
McCook Auditorium, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, hybrid event
Reflecting on Manufacturing Backlash, a report from the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, this discussion focused on current threats facing academic freedom, including the legislative assault in states such as Florida and Texas, the influence of activist donors on the integrity of teaching and research, the impact of anti-Black racism, and the antidemocratic threats stemming from fundamentalist approaches to free speech on campus.
Panelists:
- Sumi Cho, director of strategic initiatives at the African American Policy Forum
- Mary Anne Franks, Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School
- Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University
- Barrett Taylor, professor and coordinator of the higher education program at the University of North Texas
Moderated by Afshan Jafar, May Buckley Sadowski ‘19 Professor of Sociology at Connecticut College and President of the Connecticut State Conference of the AAUP.
A recording of the event is available here.
Manufacturing Backlash: Discussing Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Legislative Attack on Higher Ed
Thursday, May 20, 2024, webinar
Today, higher education is under attack. During the 2021, 2022, and 2023 legislative cycles alone more than one hundred and fifty bills were introduced in state legislatures seeking to actively undermine academic freedom and university autonomy. These bills included ninety-nine academic gag orders seeking to ban the teaching of “critical race theory” (CRT) or other so-called “divisive concepts” as well as efforts to defund campus diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, weaken tenure and accreditation, and establish academic programs, centers, and whole schools designed to teach conservative content. Join us for an online discussion of a new white paper out from the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom—Manufacturing Backlash: Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Legislative Attack on Higher Education, 2021–2023—which examines the well-funded political operatives and conservative think tanks behind this legislative attack on higher education.
Isaac Kamola, the white paper’s primary author, will begin by briefly presenting its topline findings. Then we’ll have a moderated discussion with Nancy MacLean, a scholar of dark money influence in American higher education, and Barrett Taylor, whose book Wrecked examines Republican efforts to transform education policy in the state legislatures. The event will be moderated by Karma Chávez, who has been actively involved in responding to legislative attacks on academic freedom in Texas.
Participants:
- Karma Chávez is chair and Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor in the department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is author and editor of several books including Palestine on the Air (University of Illinois Press, 2019).
- Isaac Kamola is the director of the AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.
- Nancy MacLean is professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of several prize-winning books, most recently, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America.