The Right To Learn
Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom
Published on 9. April 2024
232 pages
978-0-8070-4517-6 (ISBN)
Description
From leaders on the front lines of the battle for academic freedom in higher education, an empowering collection on fighting back against anti-CRT policies, book banning, and more
Spanning over 40 years of contested history through to today, The Right to Learn speaks out fearlessly against the far right's decades-long war against intellectual freedom. This essential anthology outlines and contextualizes the culture wars' demonization of critical race theory, Ron DeSantis's "Don't Say Gay" law, and other hot-button issues.
With an introduction that places the current crisis within the broader context of the ongoing attacks on American democracy, The Right to Learn features the testimony and analysis of activists, scholars, and attorneys with firsthand experience in the struggle against well-funded conservative groups' assaults on academic freedom.
An impassioned, inspired resource for those fighting on the ground for the right to learn, this anthology is structured in 3 parts designed to equip educators with the necessary tools to understand the battle-and to fight back.
- PART 1 explores educational gag laws, featuring, among others, PEN America staff members Jonathan Friedman, Jeremy C. Young, and James Tager.
- PART 2 offers perspectives on key issues from those on the front lines: activists, educators, and attorneys like Dennis Parker, director of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.
- PART 3 investigates the implications of undermining academic freedom, with insight from experts such as Sharon D. Austin, one of the professors barred by the University of Florida from testifying against a restrictive voting rights law and a plaintiff in the main legal case against Ron DeSantis's "Stop WOKE Act."
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04/2024
Beacon Press
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Persons
Valerie C. Johnson is associate provost of diversity, equity, and inclusion and associate professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago. Her research and teaching explore the intersections of race and class. She is the author of Black Power in the Suburbs: The Myth or Reality of African American Suburban Political Incorporation and the co-editor of Power in the City: Clarence Stone and the Politics of Inequity with Marion Orr.
Jennifer Ruth is associate dean in the College of the Arts and professor in the School of Film at Portland State University. She has written about academic freedom and higher education in publications such as the New Republic, Truthout, Academe, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Ms. Her most recent book, cowritten with Michael Bérubé, is It's Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom.
Ellen Schrecker is well known for her scholarship on McCarthyism and higher education. A retired professor of history at Yeshiva University, her latest book is The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s.
Jennifer Ruth is associate dean in the College of the Arts and professor in the School of Film at Portland State University. She has written about academic freedom and higher education in publications such as the New Republic, Truthout, Academe, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Ms. Her most recent book, cowritten with Michael Bérubé, is It's Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom.
Ellen Schrecker is well known for her scholarship on McCarthyism and higher education. A retired professor of history at Yeshiva University, her latest book is The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s.
Content
Foreword, by Irene Mulvey
INTRODUCTION
A Time for Faculty to Act
Valerie C. Johnson, Jennifer Ruth, and Ellen Schrecker
PART I-THE CURRENT CULTURE WAR
CHAPTER 1
Academic Freedom and Political Repression from McCarthyism to Trump
Ellen Schrecker
CHAPTER 2
A Koch-Funded Racial Backlash: Understanding the Critical Race Theory Moral Panic
Isaac Kamola
CHAPTER 3
The Rise of Educational Gag Orders
Jonathan Friedman, Jeremy C. Young, and James Tager
CHAPTER 4
The Epistemology of Ignorance and Its Impact on Democracy and Higher Education
Valerie C. Johnson
PART II-WHITE RAGE, TWISTED LAWS, AND PATRIARCHAL CONTROL
CHAPTER 5
Knowledge and Good Community Organizing Can Counter the "Divisive Concepts" Campaign
Kevin McGruder
CHAPTER 6
Subverting the Intent of the Fourteenth Amendment
Dennis Parker
CHAPTER 7
"Don't Say Gay" and Can't Be Trans: Behind the Anti-LGBTQ+ Schooling Agenda
Sonnet Gabbard, Anne Mitchell, and Heather Montes Ireland
PART III-COLLECTIVE ACTION AND VISIBLE RESISTANCE
CHAPTER 8
The Resolutions: Mobilizing Faculty Senates to Defend Academic Freedom
Jennifer Ruth
CHAPTER 9
Silence Gets Us Nowhere: Faculty Responses to Anti-CRT and Divisive Concepts Legislation
Sarah Sklaw
CHAPTER 10
Academic Freedom: It's a Question of Job Security
Helena Worthen and Joe Berry
CHAPTER 11
My Battle to Preserve Academic Freedom at the University of Florida
Sharon D. Wright Austin
CHAPTER 12
Florida Faculty Unions and the Struggle for Public Education
Katie Rainwater
CHAPTER 13
Schools of Education Under Fire
Marvin Lynn, Michael E. Dantley, and Lynn M. Gangone
Appendix
List of Contributors
Notes
INTRODUCTION
A Time for Faculty to Act
Valerie C. Johnson, Jennifer Ruth, and Ellen Schrecker
PART I-THE CURRENT CULTURE WAR
CHAPTER 1
Academic Freedom and Political Repression from McCarthyism to Trump
Ellen Schrecker
CHAPTER 2
A Koch-Funded Racial Backlash: Understanding the Critical Race Theory Moral Panic
Isaac Kamola
CHAPTER 3
The Rise of Educational Gag Orders
Jonathan Friedman, Jeremy C. Young, and James Tager
CHAPTER 4
The Epistemology of Ignorance and Its Impact on Democracy and Higher Education
Valerie C. Johnson
PART II-WHITE RAGE, TWISTED LAWS, AND PATRIARCHAL CONTROL
CHAPTER 5
Knowledge and Good Community Organizing Can Counter the "Divisive Concepts" Campaign
Kevin McGruder
CHAPTER 6
Subverting the Intent of the Fourteenth Amendment
Dennis Parker
CHAPTER 7
"Don't Say Gay" and Can't Be Trans: Behind the Anti-LGBTQ+ Schooling Agenda
Sonnet Gabbard, Anne Mitchell, and Heather Montes Ireland
PART III-COLLECTIVE ACTION AND VISIBLE RESISTANCE
CHAPTER 8
The Resolutions: Mobilizing Faculty Senates to Defend Academic Freedom
Jennifer Ruth
CHAPTER 9
Silence Gets Us Nowhere: Faculty Responses to Anti-CRT and Divisive Concepts Legislation
Sarah Sklaw
CHAPTER 10
Academic Freedom: It's a Question of Job Security
Helena Worthen and Joe Berry
CHAPTER 11
My Battle to Preserve Academic Freedom at the University of Florida
Sharon D. Wright Austin
CHAPTER 12
Florida Faculty Unions and the Struggle for Public Education
Katie Rainwater
CHAPTER 13
Schools of Education Under Fire
Marvin Lynn, Michael E. Dantley, and Lynn M. Gangone
Appendix
List of Contributors
Notes
