Academic freedom has been a principle that undergirds the university
since 1915. Beyond this, it also protects a spirit of free inquiry
essential to a democratic society. But in the post-9/11 present, the
basic principles of academic freedom have been deeply challenged. There
have been many startling instances where the rhetoric of national
security and terror, corporate interests, and privatization have cast a
pall over the terrain of academic freedom. In the post-9/11 university,
professors face job loss or tenure denial for speaking against state
power, while their students pay more tuition and fall deeper in debt.
This timely collection features an impressive assembly of the nation s
leading intellectuals, addressing some of the most urgent issues facing
higher education in the United States today. Spanning a wide array of
disciplinary fields, Academic Freedom in the Post-9/11 Era seeks to
intervene on the economic and political crises that are compromising the
future of our educational institutions.