The right to learn Resisting the right-wing attack on academic freedom

Book - 2024

"From leaders on the frontlines of the battle for academic freedom, a first-of-its-kind response to the far right's insidious attacks on the right to learn."--

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371.104/Right
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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 371.104/Right (NEW SHELF) Due Nov 9, 2024
Subjects
Published
Boston : Beacon Press [2024]
Language
English
Physical Description
vi, 225 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9780807045152
  • Foreword
  • Introduction A Time for Faculty to Act
  • Part I. The Current Culture War
  • Chapter 1. Academic Freedom and Political Repression from McCarthyism to Trump
  • Chapter 2. A Koch-Funded Racial Backlash: Understanding the Critical Race Theory Moral Panic
  • Chapter 3. The Rise of Educational Gag Orders
  • Chapter 4. The Epistemology of Ignorance and Its Impact on Democracy and Higher Education
  • Part II. White Rage, Twisted Laws, and Patriarchal Control
  • Chapter 5. Knowledge and Good Community Organizing Can Counter the "Divisive Concepts" Campaign
  • Chapter 6. Subverting the Intent of the Fourteenth Amendment
  • Chapter 7. "Don't Say Gay" and Can't Be Trans: Behind the Anti-LGBTQ+ Schooling Agenda
  • Part III. Collective Action And Visible Resistance
  • Chapter 8. The Resolutions: Mobilizing Faculty Senates to Defend Academic Freedom
  • Chapter 9. Silence Gets Us Nowhere: Faculty Responses to Anti-CRT and. Divisive Concepts Legislation
  • Chapter 18. Academic Freedom: It's a Question of job Security
  • Chapter 11. My Battle to Preserve Academic Freedom at the University of Florida
  • Chapter 12. Florida Faculty Unions and the Struggle for Public Education
  • Chapter 13. Schools of Education Under Fire
  • Appendix
  • List of Contributors
  • Notes
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

For this enlightening essay collection, political scientist Johnson (Black Power in the Suburbs), film studies scholar Ruth (It's Not Free Speech), and historian Schrecker (The Lost Promise) bring together educators and activists to respond to recent right-wing attempts to ban teaching material pertaining to race, gender identity, and sexuality. According to the editors, these bans constitute a serious attack on the liberal principle of unfettered inquiry and, consequently, on democracy itself. The basic facts justify the contributors' sense of urgency; in 2022 alone, 48 state legislatures considered proposals for "anti-LGBTQ schooling or curriculum restrictions," and, by the end of the year, 15 states had passed 19 of those bills. Many of the chapters have a journalistic bent, documenting contributors' personal experiences of their institutions being targeted by conservative donors and activists trying to get education bans enacted--among them Charles Koch and Christopher Rufo--as well as the educators' attempts to fight back through teachers unions and faculty senates. Primarily intended to be read by educators "as a source of information and perhaps inspiration," the anthology, despite the occasional jargon-filled passage, paints a kaleidoscopic picture of a nationwide struggle playing out between powerful institutions--right-wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation squaring off against the ACLU and PEN America. It's a detailed dissection of an urgent political issue. (Apr.)

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