UMich faculty speak on academic freedom and free speech – The Michigan Daily

About 60 Ann Arbor community members gathered in the Honigman Auditorium at the University of Michigan Law School for the 33rd annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture Thursday afternoon. The lecture was hosted by the U-M Faculty Senate and focused on educational gag orders and state censorship.

Johnathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works for the protection of creative expression was the guest lecturer at the event. Friedman spoke about the threat of censorship in public education and made suggestions for promoting academic freedom on college campuses.

The DMN lecture is named after three former U-M faculty members Chandler Davis, Clement Markert and Mark Nickerson. The men were suspended from the University for declining to answer questions on their political associations in 1954 when they testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, as they alleged to have been communists during the time of the Red Scare.

Introductory remarks of the lecture were made by associate history professor Melanie Tanielian and Elizabeth Moje, dean of the Marsal Family School of Education. Tanielian opened the lecture with an initial discussion of academic freedom and speech.

At the heart of academic freedom is the protection of free and open inquiry, including expression of controversial ideas that some may consider wrong or offensive, Tanielian said. Academic freedom not only protects faculty speech and teaching, research and institutional decision-making, it protects the right to address the larger community.

While talking about academic freedom, Tanielian emphasized the importance of factoring current global events into these conversations, specifically the ongoing impacts of the Israel-Hamas war.

Taking the stage, Friedman started his lecture by proposing questions regarding freedom of expression, free speech and academic freedom.

Now, in order to think and talk about academic freedom, and to talk about this moment that were in, its critical that we start with, What do we mean when we talk about free speech? Friedman said. What is academic freedom anyways? Is academic freedom free speech, and what the heck is free expression? These questions circle. Im going to try and make it as simple as possible, they all blur into one another.

Friedman continued with how academic freedom relates to international human rights and patriotism.

Friedman also discussed being uncomfortable in university settings when academic freedom is restricted, such as when books and media that reference LGBTQ+ rights or Black history are banned. He said he believes these feelings can be useful in sparking conversations regarding disagreeable issues in academic discourse.

We have to find some way of encouraging universities to be places where we might not all agree, we might not get closure on (issues), we might not solve the issues, but lets talk about it, Friedman said. Lets listen to each other a little bit.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA junior Dana Minor attended the event and shared why she believes free speech can be effective.

Free speech is a murky area only because everyone wants it totally applied in their favor, Minor said. The only way that it can be effective is if we are objective and neutral about it and let everyone express themselves. Let free speech actually be free speech, rather than tailoring it to our biases.

Daily Staff Reporter Ellen Drejza can be reached at edrejza@umich.edu. Daily News Contributor Anushka Patil can be reached at panushka@umich.edu.

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UMich faculty speak on academic freedom and free speech - The Michigan Daily