On Monday, the Center for the Study of American Democracy (CSAD) hosted two professors for a presentation and spirited discussion on free expression and its interconnectedness with other essential American freedoms.
Professor of History Amna Khalid and Professor of Educational Studies Jeff Snyder hail from up north at a fellow liberal arts institution, Carleton College. Khalid and Snyder host a podcast called “Banished” and collaboratively write articles on a Substack blog of the same name. They have covered a range of topics, all centered on political, economic and cultural threats to free speech, especially in education. CSAD initially invited Khalid and Snyder to speak on Jan. 26, but due to a snowstorm, the event was delayed.
Listeners entered Archon Auditorium to the sound of “I Wish I Knew How” by Nina Simone; the YouTube link was prominently featured on the opening slide. Khalid would later use the lyrics to demonstrate how free speech “presumes an audience,” arguing that when the rights of speakers are under attack, it is doubly the rights of listeners that suffer. Snyder began the talk, and the two speakers would alternate throughout the presentation.
The talk began with a thorough proof of the interconnected ideals of a liberal arts education, enlightenment liberalism and free speech. For a liberal arts college, institutional and educational values of free speech align. Khalid and Snyder drew on scholars and activists such as Alexis de Tocqueville, Frederick Douglass and former President Abraham Lincoln to support their argument.
From there, Khalid and Snyder expanded on the concept of academic freedom: the right of educators to teach, research and speak freely. The speakers clarified that academic freedom is not constitutionally protected, but a “guild right” protected by professional norms and institutions like the American Association of University Professors. Academic freedom, they argued, only extends to teachers’ right to teach within the norms of their field, not to preach wild and unfounded claims.
The rest of the lecture focused on conservative attacks on academic freedom and the freedom of expression. The presentation covered everything from attacks on critical race theory in 2020, state-level free speech infringements that occurred during the Joe Biden administration such as the “Stop WOKE” Act in Florida and recent arrests of student protesters.
The speakers received some pushback from the audience on this subject. During the Q&A section, Professor of Political Science Fred Baumann told the speakers that he took issue with their lack of focus on the deplatforming of conservative perspectives. Khalid replied, “I couldn’t agree more with you; Jeff and I have spent the first five years critiquing only that.” Khalid continued that the only reason she and Snyder are spending time critiquing the right today is because at this moment the threats of censorship from the right have “more teeth” than those of the left.
Khalid and Snyder encouraged students interested in protecting the liberal arts value of academic freedom to protest, incorporate protest into their education and incorporate education into their protest. “Organize a panel, get some of the experts on the campus, do collective knowledge building that ultimately might be in the service of a cause, right?” Snyder said in his concluding remarks. “But let’s start by trying to understand the basic landscape of what’s happening. So I think that the students have a strong voice, and I really have been amazed.”