Academic Freedom and the “Whitelash” of the 2020s

Abstract

Michael Bérubé (mfb12@psu.edu) is an Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Penn State University. He served on the American Association of University Professors’ Committee A on Academic Freedom from 2009 to 2018 and was the President of the Modern Language Association in 2012. His most recent book is It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom, coauthored with Jennifer Ruth (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022). In Short • Florida’s governor and legislature have mounted a multipronged assault on the intellectual autonomy of Florida’s public colleges and universities.