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The Doctrine of Academic Freedom - Let’s give up on academic freedom in favor of justice
The Harvard Crimson ^ | February 18, 2014 | Sandra Y.L. Korn

Posted on 02/20/2014 6:02:42 AM PST by Keltik

Yet the liberal obsession with “academic freedom” seems a bit misplaced to me. After all, no one ever has “full freedom” in research and publication. Which research proposals receive funding and what papers are accepted for publication are always contingent on political priorities. The words used to articulate a research question can have implications for its outcome. No academic question is ever “free” from political realities. If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”?

Instead, I would like to propose a more rigorous standard: one of “academic justice.” When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue.

It is tempting to decry frustrating restrictions on academic research as violations of academic freedom. Yet I would encourage student and worker organizers to instead use a framework of justice. After all, if we give up our obsessive reliance on the doctrine of academic freedom, we can consider more thoughtfully what is just.

(Excerpt) Read more at thecrimson.com ...


TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: academia; academicbias; education; indoctrination; naughtteacherslist; revisionisthistory
Sandra Y.L. Korn ’14, a Crimson editorial writer, is a joint history of science and studies of women, gender and sexuality concentrator in Eliot House. Her column usually appears on alternate Mondays.
1 posted on 02/20/2014 6:02:42 AM PST by Keltik
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To: Keltik

Another happy little fascist from Boston.

Lock and load, boys and girls—this will not end well.


2 posted on 02/20/2014 6:08:59 AM PST by Flintlock ( islam is a LIE, mohammed was a CRIMINAL, shira is POISON.)
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To: Keltik

Ms. Korn is an enemy of the people.


3 posted on 02/20/2014 6:14:38 AM PST by allendale
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To: Keltik

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy


4 posted on 02/20/2014 7:01:42 AM PST by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: Keltik
If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”?

Apparently the Harvard motto needs to be changed from " Veritas" to "Veritas Nostra". Another happy little fascist from Harvard.

5 posted on 02/20/2014 7:07:08 AM PST by Timocrat (Ingnorantia non excusat)
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To: Keltik

6 posted on 02/20/2014 7:14:57 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Keltik
"I would like to propose a more rigorous standard: one of “academic justice.” "

This ridiculous idea presupposes the outcome of any inquiry. It removes some ideas from criticism as well as removing other ideas from promotion. It erases the Bill of Rights' concept of "innocent until proven guilty."

7 posted on 02/20/2014 9:31:52 AM PST by Albion Wilde (The less a man knows, the more certain he is that he knows it all.)
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To: Keltik

“and studies of women, gender and sexuality”

which are not academic courses, they are political and politicized courses where neither the source material content of the content delivered by the professors has is bound by rigorous objectivity

to such people “justice” is whatever they want to define it as


8 posted on 02/20/2014 12:20:43 PM PST by Wuli
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