As written
It is a pleasure to say a few remarks to introduce an outstanding scholar and longtime friend, Professor Robert Post of the Yale Law School. Professor Post is among the nation’s most insightful constitutional theorists and one of its leading experts on both free speech and academic freedom. His talk this afternoon is titled “The Structure of Academic Freedom,” and the topic could not be more urgent.
Throughout the world and in this country, we are confronting efforts by powerful actors, in government and outside it, to control the research that scholars do and the classes that they teach. In the United States, the threats to inquiries about subjects such as racial equality and gender identity are especially acute.
The future of America’s colleges and universities requires that we stand up to these threats. We must defend the freedom of our scholars to teach and conduct research about even the most controversial and politically sensitive questions. Scholarly inquiry and teaching must be guided by academic norms of rigor and disciplinary excellence, unfettered and uncorrupted by interference from outside, or inside, the university.
To defend academic freedom, we must understand its scope and the arguments that justify it. That is no simple matter. The meaning of academic freedom is hotly contested. For example, some of those who advocate for limits on teaching about race or gender have tried to cast themselves as defenders of academic freedom by claiming that they are targeting “indoctrination” rather than scholarship.[1] These arguments about the definition of academic freedom are not mere borderline disputes or theoretical quibbles; on the contrary, they go to the very heart of the matter.
We are therefore fortunate to have Robert Post with us this afternoon. I cannot think of anyone better qualified to help us understand the meaning of and justifications for academic freedom.
Robert is the Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he served as dean from 2009 to 2017. Before joining the Yale faculty, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. Robert specializes in constitutional law, with a particular emphasis on the First Amendment. His books include The Taft Court: Making Law for A Divided Nation 1921-30 (Cambridge University Press 2024) and Democracy, Expertise, and Academic Freedom: A First Amendment Jurisprudence for the Modern State (Yale University Press 2012). He also served for two years as general counsel to the American Association of University Professors and was a member of that organization’s Committee A, which deals with issues of tenure and academic freedom. He is an excellent scholar, and I have learned a great deal from his writings.
Please join me in welcoming Professor Robert Post!
[1] See, e.g., Joshua Rauh, “Florida Shows How to Combat Woke Indoctrination on Campus,” Wall Street Journal (February 8, 2023).