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This book presents a series of essays by the renowned historian Joan Wallach Scott that explore the history and theory of academic freedom and the value of critical inquiry today. Scott considers the contradictions in the concept of academic freedom through examinations of the relationship between state power and higher education, the differences between the First Amendment right of free speech and the guarantee of academic freedom, and, in response to recent campus controversies, the politics of civility. The book concludes with an interview with Bill Moyers in which Scott discusses the personal experiences that have informed her views. Academic freedom is an aspiration, Scott holds: Its implementation always falls short of its promise, but it is essential as an ideal of ethical practice. Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom is both a nuanced reflection on the tensions within one of academia's cherished concepts and a strong defense of the importance of critical scholarship for the preservation of democracy against the anti-intellectualism of figures from Joseph McCarthy to Donald Trump
List of contents
Introduction: On the Future of Academic Freedom
1. Academic Freedom as an Ethical Practice
2. Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom
3. Civility, Affect, and Academic Freedom
4. Academic Freedom and the State
5. On Free Speech and Academic Freedom
Epilogue: In the Age of Trump, a Chilling Atmosphere—an Interview with Joan Wallach Scott by Bill Moyers
Notes
Index
About the author
Joan Wallach Scott is professor emerita in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Her books include Sex and Secularism (2017) and Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia, thirtieth anniversary edition, 2018). She is a long-standing member of the American Association of University Professors Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
Summary
This book presents a series of essays by the renowned historian Joan Wallach Scott that explore the history and theory of academic freedom and the value of critical inquiry today. Scott gives a nuanced reflection on the tensions within one of academia’s cherished concepts.
Additional text
An astute and critical analysis of the erosion of higher education in the public imagination.
