By Jonathan Hearn   Academic freedom is about safeguarding the right to research, write, speak and teach on topics as one sees fit, without undue interference.  It is the matter of free speech as it applies to the context of universities and other teaching and research organisations.  The states of academic freedom and freedom of […]

Chances are most people reading this will be aware that one of the current flashpoints for academic freedom is the debate on sex, gender and gender identity. You’ve probably heard of Professor Kathleen Stock who was hounded out of her job at the University of Sussex, Professor Selina Todd who needed security guards to accompany […]

Blog by Neil Thin     In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), we are invited to imagine an absurdly polarised dispute about the culturally approved way of breaking open a boiled egg. The Big-Endians of Lilliput have ended up at war with the Little-Endians of Blefuscu over this seemingly intractable debate. It is a well-known […]

Edinburgh Academics for Academic Freedom will hold an inaugural discussion event on Tuesday April 26th 4.00-5.30 in the Laidlaw Room, Chrystal Macmillan Building. Come and join us to discuss academic freedom at the University of Edinburgh and beyond. What does academic freedom mean to you? What does it look like in practice? What are the […]

We regard academic freedom – the duty of universities to ensure that their members can pursue whatever lines of enquiry they deem appropriate in their teaching, research and public engagement – as foundational in a democracy. In some parts of the world, academics face threats to their lives as well as their livelihoods for their […]