New Faculty-Led Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard
Launched in March 2023, the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard is a faculty-led organization dedicated to promoting free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse at Harvard University. Its more than 120 faculty members [at present] represent dozens of departments and every one of Harvard’s schools.
Visit the Council’s website to read about the mission, members, and how to donate.
Press on the Council:
AFA Interview 5/24/23—Our Best Hope: A Conversation about Academic Freedom with Professor Steven Pinker: “…the most optimistic view would be that the orgy of repression that we have seen in the last four or five years will be a temporary extreme that these organizations help to reign in.”
Crimson Editorial Board 5/1/23— Some Cautious Counsel to the Academic Freedom Council: “We don’t entirely trust the council’s intentions in constructing this freedom right now.”
Crimson Editorial Dissent 5/1/23—A Welcome Addition to Campus Discourse: “[W]e should begin by assuming good faith and remaining hopeful about the council.”
New York Post, 4/27/23—Over 100 Harvard professors form council in fight for free speech amid ‘crisis’: “We are in a crisis time right now.”
Press Release 4/20/23—A Voice for Academic Freedom at Harvard
New York Times, 4/16/23—Promising Signs for Free Speech on Campus: “The faculty at Harvard University is also stepping up.”
Harvard Crimson, 4/14/23— More than 70 Harvard Faculty Form Council on Academic Freedom, Co-Led by Steven Pinker: “I love Harvard, I think it’s the greatest university in the world, and I want it to stay that way…And the only way it’s gonna stay that way is if it’s a welcome place for people to voice unpopular opinions and to be oddballs in various ways and countercultural in various ways.”
Boston Globe, 4/12/23—New Faculty-Led Organization at Harvard will Defend Academic Freedom: “The embattled ideal of academic freedom is not just a matter of the individual rights of professors and students. It’s baked into the mission of a university, which is to seek and share the truth — veritas, as our university, Harvard, boasts on its seal.” Reprinted by Persuasion, 4/21/23 Faculty, not politicians, must lead the way on free speech; “The embattled ideal of academic freedom is not just a matter of the individual rights of professors and students. It’s baked into the mission of a university, which is to seek and share the truth…”
Wall Street Journal, 4/12/23—Harvard Has a Free Speech Moment: “The academic freedom group includes former Harvard president and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former dean of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine Jeffrey Flier, law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, economist Gregory Mankiw, social ethics professor Mahzarin R. Banaji and Islamic intellectual history professor Khaled El-Rouayheb, among others across the ideological spectrum.”
