When Universities are the “Enemy”: Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of American Higher Education

“The Universities are the Enemy” was the title of J.D. Vance’s speech at the National Conservatism Conference in 2021. Three years later, Vance is on the Republican presidential ticket. What does it mean for GOP leaders to call the nation’s institutions of learning and research enemies of the nation?

This webinar will explore the complex relationship between authoritarianism and higher education, with insights from scholars Ellen Schrecker, Donald Moynihan, and John Aubrey Douglass. It will unpack the threats authoritarian regimes pose to academic freedom, the challenges faced by educators, and the vital role higher education must play in resisting anti-democratic forces.

Ellen Schrecker, a renowned historian of McCarthyism and its impact on academia, will provide a historical lens on how authoritarianism targets intellectual freedom and dissent. Donald Moynihan, an expert on public administration and policy, will discuss how authoritarianism reshapes governance structures in universities, limiting academic autonomy and undermining public trust. John Aubrey Douglass, a prominent scholar of global higher education systems, will address the global implications of authoritarian trends on institutional missions and the role of universities in fostering democratic citizenship. The discussion will be moderated by Eric Mlyn, the Director of the project on Democracy and the Politics of American Higher Education at Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. The webinar will close with a Q&A.

Register for this event here.

Speakers:

John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow and Research Professor at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. His most recent book is “Neo-Nationalism and Universities: Populists, Autocrats, and the Future of Higher Education” (2021).

Don Moynihan is Professor at the Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan and a fellow at the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. He studies public institutions and has written about threats to campus speech on his blog “Can We Still Govern?”.

Ellen Schrecker is an American historian known for her research on McCarthyism, political repression, and American higher education. Her latest book, edited with Valerie C. Johnson and Jennifer Ruth, is “The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing War on Academic Freedom” (2024). Among her most important works are “The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s” (2021); “Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America” (1998); and “No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities” (1986). A retired Professor of History at Yeshiva University, she serves on the Steering Committee of Historians for Peace and Democracy and is a member of the national AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance.

Moderator:

Eric Mlyn is Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics and Lecturer at the Sanford School for Public Policy, Duke University. His intellectual interests focus on the role of higher education in fostering democracy and working with undergraduates to foster political and civic engagement. He is the Co-Editor with Amanda Moore McBride of the book “Connecting Social Innovation and Civic Engagement: Toward Higher Education’s Democratic Promise” (2020).