The AAUP's Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom is hosting two timely upcoming webinars on Wednesday, December 4.
The first, at 4:00 p.m. EST on December 4, is titled “Responding to Campaigns of Intimidation and Harassment in Teaching and Research.” 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. This 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 include Rebekah Tromble (director of the Institute for Data Democracy and Politics and professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University), Sachin S. Pandya (professor of law at the University of Connecticut), and Jo Boaler (the Nomellini and Olivier Professor of mathematics in the graduate school of education at Stanford University). The discussion will be moderated by myself, Isaac Kamola (professor of political science at Trinity College, CT, and director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom).
Register for "Responding to Campaigns of Intimidation and Harassment in Teaching and Research" here.
The second webinar, at 7:00 p.m. EST on December 4, is the third in a four-part series, co-sponsored with United Faculty of Florida (UFF), an affiliate of AFT, and titled “‘Countries of Concern’: Impacts on Florida Universities and Strategies for Faculty.” Florida universities, such as Florida International University, have been forced to end several partnerships with Chinese universities 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. We encourage all faculty, staff, and students in Florida and beyond to join.
Panelists include Racqueal Legerwood (fellow in China Research and Advocacy at Amnesty International), Meera Sitharam (professor of computer science and affiliate professor of mathematics at the University of Florida), and Yuxuan Wang (professor of physics at the University of Florida). The discussion will be moderated by Eve 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 Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom).
Register for "'Countries of Concern': Impacts on Florida Universities and Strategies for Faculty" here.
Please check out the resources on the Center’s website on how to respond to FOI requests as well as the Researcher Support Consortium’s toolkit on developing institutional responses to harassment. We invite you to register for these upcoming sessions as well as our final session in the series, Academic Freedom School: Defending Academic Freedom in Florida, as this work is more relevant than ever.
