Stanley Fish on Academic Freedom July 23, 2006

In this New York Times piece, Fish tries to nuance the debate over academic freedom, specifically over whether a professor should be allowed to espouse political positions in the classroom. Using a Wisconsin professor who spoke in his class of 9/11 as an inside government job, he draws a productive distinction between a professor being an advocate for "extremist" or minority views, and taking these views (which often have wide cultural currency) as objects of analysis. He declares that the former approach is not within the bounds of protected academic freedom, whereas the latter is. Read the NYT article.

–Suzanne Verderber