Statements
ACLS Statement In Support of Academic Freedom and New College of Florida
In recent years, we have seen politicians intensify their effort to re-brand institutions of higher education – specifically, the humanities and social sciences – as hothouses of liberal indoctrination. Their attacks threaten public understanding of our nation’s history and culture, and they undermine key principles of academic freedom and faculty governance.
The governor of Florida has now moved past rhetoric to direct action with its current “overhaul” of New College of Florida. The state administration uses the word “indoctrination” often and freely. By ousting Dr. Patricia Okker, the president of New College of Florida, and by taking over the college’s Board of Trustees, they reveal themselves as would-be indoctrinators of views that undermine the purpose of higher education in a democracy. Other states are already pursuing similar efforts of intimidation and censorship.
ACLS stands up in support of ex-President Okker, the New College community, and faculty and students at institutions of higher education around the country who are experiencing similar political interventions. We believe that higher education is based on critical thinking and informed debate. We recognize that differences of opinion are vital to academic inquiry, and we support the rights of all students and faculty to freely engage in scholarly conversation and civil debate. This is precisely what is threatened in this moment.
We ask every member of the ACLS community to inform themselves about these dangerous developments and to draw on the resources of ACLS, its member societies, and other groups that are mobilizing to protect faculty governance and advocate for the free circulation of humanistic knowledge.
We thank those of you already joining the fight in your societies and on your campuses. ACLS invites our community of member societies, member institutions, fellows and grantees, and supporters to sign this statement to affirm their support for sustaining academic freedom in higher education.
Add your name to this important statement supporting academic freedom
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Learned Societies and Higher Education Institutions
American Academy of Religion
American Anthropological Association
American Association for Italian Studies
American Folklore Society
American Historical Association
American Political Science Association
American Society for Environmental History
American Sociological Association
African Studies Association
American Academy of Religion
American Anthropological Association
American Association for Italian Studies
American Folklore Society
American Historical Association
American Musicological Society
American Philosophical Association
American Political Science Association
American Society for Environmental History
American Society for Theatre Research
American Sociological Association
Association for Jewish Studies Executive Committee
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Association of Black Sociologists
Association of University Presses
College Art Association
Dance Studies Association
German Studies Association
History of Science Society
Latin American Studies Association
Linguistic Society of America
Medieval Academy of America
Middle East Studies Association
Modern Language Association
National Council of Teachers of English
National Council on Public History
National Women’s Studies Association
Organization of American Historians
Rhetoric Society of America
Sixteenth Century Society & Conference
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Society for Classical Studies
Society for Ethnomusicology
Society for Music Theory
Society for the History of Technology
Society of Biblical Literature
United Faculty of Florida
World History Association
Individuals
Susan Abraham, New York Law School
Kudus Adebayo, University of Ibadan
Richard Adelstein, Wesleyan University
Iram Ahmad, Forman Christian University
Farhad Ameen, Westchester Community College, SUNY
James Amelang, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Anu Aneja, Women and Gender Studies, George Mason University
Elisabeth Anker, George Washington University
Lauren Araiza, Denison University
Nicole Archer, Montclair State University
Tayo Arinde, University of.Ilorin
Peter Arnade, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University
Noriko Aso, University of Califorinia, Santa Cruz
Noah Echa Attah, Federal University of Kashere, Nigeria
Michael Bérubé, Penn State University
Tekla Babyak
Mary Bachvarova, Willamette University
Ana Bajzelj, University of California, Riverside
Javiera Barandiaran, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sotirios Barber, University of Notre Dame
Alessandro Barchiesi, New York University
Ian Barnard, Chapman University
Kazal Barua, International Buddhist College
Amy Bauer, University of California, Irvine
Sahar Bazzaz, College of the Holy Cross
Richard Bensel, Cornell University
Iris Berger, University at Albany
Jonathan Berkey, Davidson College
Joel Berkowitz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Brian Bernards, University of Southern California
Eric Beverley, SUNY Stony Brook
Lorraine Blatt, University of Pittsburgh
Stephen Bloch-Schulman Elon University
Gina Bloom, University of California, Davis
Mary T. Boatwright, Duke University
Bruce Boehrer, Florida State University
Stephanie Bolesh, New College of Florida
Catherine Boone, American Academy of Arts & Sciences and London School of Economics
Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara
Erik-Jan Bos, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Joseph Bosco, Dept. of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis
Beverly Bossler, Brown University
Philip Boucher, University of Alabama in Huntsville
David Brakke, The Ohio State University
Karin Braunsberger, University of South Florida
Martha Jane Brazy, Quinnipiac University
Sarah Bricknell, Seattle University
David Brodbeck, University of California, Irvine
Peter Brooks, Yale University
Marilyn Brown, Tulane University and University of Colorado Boulder
Rachel Brubaker, Dresher Center for the Humanities, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Matilda Bruckner, Boston College
Marsha Bryant, University of Florida
Colleen Buchanan, Brighton Area Schools
Michael Buchler, Society for Music Theory
Stephen M. Buhler, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Michael Burden, New College, University of Oxford
Mary Cameron, Florida Atlantic University
Elisabeth Camp, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
Rosemary Candelario, Dance Studies Association
Elizabeth Castelli, Barnard College at Columbia University
basaikou Ceesay, SGFC, Global Foundation For Children Education and Health Service
Varun Chandrasekhar, Washington University in St. Louis
Erin D. Chapman, George Washington University
Juan Chattah, University of Miami
Kristy Cherry-Randle, Florida State University
Tamara Chin, Brown University
Matthew Christensen, University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley
Joel Christensen, Brandeis University
Richard Chused, New York Law School
George Clark, Queen’s University
Christine Clayton, Pace University
Tom Clayton, University of Minnesota
Francis X. Clooney, Harvard University
Ed Cohen, Rutgers University
Christa Cole, Society for Music Theory
Rebecca Colesworthy, SUNY Press
Anna Cominsky, New York Law School
Nancy Condee, University of Pittsburgh
Mary Conley, College of the Holy Cross
Jessica Cooley, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
David Cooper, University of Illinois
Michael Cooper, American Society of International Law
Paul Copp, University of Chicago
Larry Covin, Trinity United Church of Christ (York, PA)
Sidnie Crawford, Princeton Theological Seminary
J. Brent Crosson, The University of Texas at Austin
Thomas Crow, New York University
John Cuciurean, Western University
Suzanne Cusick, New York University
Robert Darnton, Harvard University
Cathy Davidson, Graduate Center CUNY
Richard Davis, Bard College
Nicholas de Villiers, United Faculty of Florida-University of North Florida
Willem de Vries, University of New Hampshire (emeritus)
William M. Decker, Oklahoma State University
Nicole Denner, Stetson University
Rosanna Dent, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Karen deVries, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Charles Dew, Williams Colege
Nikhil Dharan, University of Pennsylvania
Deborah Dinner, Cornell Law School
Nathan Dize, Oberlin College
Christian Doll, North Carolina State University
Virginia Dominguez, American Anthropological Association and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A.A. Donohue, Bryn Mawr College
David Drake, University of Iowa
Melvyn Dubofsky, Binghamton University, SUNY
Sebastien Dubreil, Carnegie Mellon University
Jonna Eagle, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
LaWanda Eckert, University of Texas at Tyler
Beth Eddy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Bonnie Effros, University of British Columbia
Susan Eleuterio, Goucher College
Sarah Elkind, San Diego State University
Margaret P. Elliott, Georgia College & State University
Reginald Ellis, Florida A&M University
Maud Ellmann, University of Chicago
Christopher Endrinal, Florida Gulf Coast University
Dylan Esler, University of Louvain
Andres Espinoza, Florida Atlantic University
Estibalitz Ezkerra Vegas, Arizona State University
Jessica Falcone, Kansas State University
Joe Falocco, Texas State University
Arnold Fege, Public Advocacy for Kids
Jonathan Feingold, Boston University School of Law
Paula Feldman, University of South Carolina
Brent Ferguson, College of Southern Maryland
Jonathan Feuer, University of California, Los Angeles
Les Field, University of New Mexico
Grace Fielder, University of Arizona
Halina Filipowicz, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Gail Finney, University of California, Davis
Eitan Fishbane, The Jewish Theological Seminary
Talya Fishman, University of Pennsylvania
James Fleming, Boston University School of Law
Cynthia Folio, Temple University
Stephanie Fortado, University of Illinois
Elena Foulis, Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Michael Fuller, University of California, Irvine
John Fyler, Tufts University
Scott Gage, Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Alisha Gaines, Florida State University
Michael Galaty, University of Michigan
Ann Garry, California State University, Los Angeles
Prisca Gayles, University of Nevada, Reno
Meredith Gill, University of Maryland, College Park
Barbara Gold, Hamilton College
Andrea Goldman, University of California, Los Angeles
Emma Goldman-Sherman, BraveSpace.online
Melinda Gonzales Backen, Florida State University
Adrienne Gonzalez, Tallahassee Community College
Robin Goodman, Florida State University
Robert Gordon, Stanford Law School
Michael Gorra, Smith College
Andrea Goulet, University of Pennsylvania
Tarez Graban, Florida State University
Paulette Granberry Russell, North Star Consulting Network, LLC
Jeremy Grainger, Rutgers University Press
Julianne Grasso, Florida State University
Elizabeth Graver, Boston College
Lila Ellen Gray, Dickinson College
Geoffrey Green, San Francisco State University
Thomas Greene, University of North Georgia
A. Eliza Greenstadt, Portland State University
Marion Guck, University of Michigan
Catherine Gudis, University of California, Riverside
Holly Guise, University of New Mexico
Arjun Guneratne, Macalester College
Victor Muchineripi Gwande, University of the Free State
Janet Gyatso, Harvard Divinity School
Dr. Thomas Haakenson, California College of the Arts
Chris Hall, University of the Ozarks
Charles Hallisey, Harvard University
Marc Hannaford, University of Michigan
Robert Hanning, Columbia University
Michele Hannoosh, University of Michigan
Elaine Hansen, Bates College
Paul Hanson, Butler University
Lee Haring, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
Robert Hatten, The University of Texas at Austin
Julie Hayes, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert Hegel, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Washington University in St. Louis
Ann Heirman, Ghent University
Helen Hope Henderson, Sede Bogotá de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Jeffrey Henderson, Boston University
Richard Hermann, University of New Mexico
Ramani Hettiarachchi, University of Peradeniya
Jessica Heybach, Florida International University
Erica Hill-Yates, Delaware County Community College
Stephen Hinds, University of Washington, Seattle
Peter Hoffer, Department of History, University of Georgia
Kristin Hoganson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Brooke Holmes, Princeton University
Jeehee Hong, McGill University
Julian Hook, Indiana University
Teresa Hornsby, Chicago Theological Seminary
Jean Howard, Columbia University
Sonia Howman, Parent of New College of Florida student
Kellen Hoxworth, University of Buffalo, SUNY
Stacy Hubbard, University of Buffalo, SUNY
Christopher Huck,
Sheila Hassell Hughes, Saint Mary’s College of California
Eileen Hunt, University of Notre Dame
Samuel Huskey, University of Oklahoma
Michael Ium, University of Toronto
Bruce Jackson, University at Buffalo
Nancy Jacobs, Brown University
Evelyn Jacobson, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Laurie Johnson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Justin Joyce, The New School
Kulikoyela Kahigi, St. Augustine University of Tanzania
Amy Kaminsky, University of Minnesota
Eileen Kane, Connecticut College
Benjamin Kaplan, University College London
Tony Keddie, The University of Texas at Austin
Linda Kerber, University of Iowa
Antoni Keya, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Roshanak Kheshti, University of California, Berkeley
Ben Kiernan, Yale University
Rebecca King, Archaeological Institute of America
Jeffrey Kinkley, St. John’s University, New York
Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Robin Kirk, Duke University
Robert Klinkel, Branch Out School LLC
Michal Kobialka, University of Minnesota
Adam Kolek, Rowan University
Christine Kooi, Louisiana State University
Elizabeth Koslov, University of California, Los Angeles
Maryanne Kowaleski, Fordham University
Joseph Kraus, Florida State University
B. Robert Kreiser, American Association of University Professors
Sheryl Kroen, University of Florida
George Kuh, Indiana University
Kristen Kvam, Saint Paul School of Theology
Anthony La Vopa, North Carolina State University (retired)
Anne Lambright, Carnegie Mellon University
Travis Lau, Kenyon College
Traugott Lawler, Yale University
Kenneth Ledford, Case Western Reserve University
Jennifer Legler, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Patricia Leighten, Duke University
Arthur Leonard, New York Law School
Gerald Leonard, Boston University
Lizzie Leopold, Dance Studies Association
Fred Leventhal, Boston University
Lynn C. Lewis, Oklahoma State University
Nancy Lin, Institute of Buddhist Studies
Sara Lindheim, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ralph Litzinger, Duke University
Nicole Lobdell, Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Mary Loe, James Madison University
Lisa Logan, United Faculty of Florida
Robert Louden, University of Southern Maine
Timothy Lubin, Washington and Lee University
David Ludden, New York University
Eugene Lyman,
Lillian Makeda, Independent Scholar
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Virginia Tech
Noriko Manabe, Temple University
Susan Mann, University of California, Davis
Stephen Marks, Boston University School of Law
Sarah Marlowe, University of Rochester
Jennifer Marshall, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Teresa Marshall, University of Iowa College of Dentistry
Elizabeth Marvin, Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester
David Mason, Butler University
Adeline Masquelier, Tulane University
Melani McAlister, George Washington University
Dwight McBride, The New School
Regan Sommer McCoy, Virginia Union University
Robin McGinty,
Mary McHugh, Gustavus Adolphus College
Sarah McKee, ACLS
Susan McKernan, University of Iowa
Adam McKible, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Karline McLain, Bucknell University
Pamela McVay, Ursuline College
Kristina Medina, St. Olaf College
Louise Meintjes, Duke University
Martin Meisel, Columbia University
John Melillo, University of Arizona
Eugenio Menegon, Boston University
Margaret E. Menninger, Texas State University
Elliot Mercer, University of Chicago
Carlin Meyer, New York Law School
Sarah Miller, Mills College at Northeastern University
Robert Miller, The Catholic University of America
Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Eric Mlyn, Duke University
Ryan Moran, University of Utah
James Morey, Emory University
Lynn Morgan, Mount Holyoke College
Matthew Morrison, New York University
Reinhold C. Mueller, University of Venice, Italy
Ananya Mukherjea, New College alum and current CUNY faculty member
Martin Munro, Florida State University
Isaac N. Mwinlaaru, University of Cape Coast
Anna Nelson, University of Michigan
Jeffrey Nicolaisen, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
Ameera Nimjee, Yale University
David Nye, University of Southern Denmark
Tim Oakes, University of Colorado Boulder
James O’Donnell, Arizona State University
Olabode Wale Ojoniyi, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria
Dara Orenstein, George Washington University
Elizabeth Osborn, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Ann Ostendorf, Gonzaga University
J. B. Owens, Idaho State University
Victor Pacheco, College of the Holy Cross
Crystal Parikh, New York University
Molly Pasco-Pranger, University of Mississippi
Lynn Pasquerella, American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
Thomas Patteson, Curtis Institute of Music
Kathy Peiss, University of Pennsylvania
Rui Jie Peng, Lafayette College
Patricia Penn Hilden, University of California, Berkeley
Ramona Perez, San Diego State University
Jeffrey Perry, Louisiana State University
Anthony Petro, Boston University
Joel Pfister, Wesleyan University
Kristin Phillips, Emory University
Chuck Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato
Joy Pierce, University of Utah
Peter Pierson, Santa Clara University
Emily Pillinger, King’s College London
Charles Piot, Duke University
Richard Pious, Barnard College
Brian Porter-Szucs, University of Michigan
David Potter, The University of Michigan
Betty Pranksem-Goode, Second Congregational Church of Londonberry, VT
Kenneth Price, Walt Whitman Archive
Judith Prince, University of South Carolina Upstate (retired)
Maria Isabel Puerta Riera, Valencia College
Edward A. Purcell, Jr., New York Law School
Dana Rabin, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Eugenia Rainey, Dartmouth College
Juan G. Ramos, College of the Holy Cross
Teresa Ramsby, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Antonia Randolph, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Joanne Rappaport, Georgetown University
Rush Rehm, Stanford University
Amy Reid, New College of Florida
Molly Reid, Florida State University
Martha Reineke, University of Northern Iowa
Timothy J. Reiss, New York University
Jared Richman, Colorado College
Karie Riddle, Pepperdine University
Joerg Rieger, Vanderbilt University
Jennifer Roberts, City University of New York
Melissa Rock, State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz
Juana Maria Rodriguez, University of California, Berkeley
William Rodriguez, Bethune Cookman University
Ana Rodriguez-Rodriguez, University of Iowa
Nancy Rogers, Florida State University
Judith Mendelsohn Rood, Biola University
Mark Rose, Florida Atlantic University
Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York
Anya Royce, Indiana University
Anne Sarah Rubin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Joan Shelley Rubin, University of Rochester
Philip Rubio, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Anne Runyan, University of Cincinnati
John Rury, University of Kansas
Jennifer Ruth, Portland State University
Thais Rutledge, The University of Texas at Austin
Jonathan Sadowsky, Case Western Reserve University
Sadia Saeed, University of San Francisco
Paul Saint-Amour, University of Pennsylvania
Alexa Sand, Utah State University
Jeffrey Santa Ana, Stony Brook University, SUNY
Leyla Savloff, Elon University
Jennifer Scappettone, University of Chicago
Seth Schein, University of California, Davis
Bambi B. Schieffelin, New York University
Claudia Schippert, University of Central Florida
Elizabeth Schirmer, New Mexico State University
Michael Schoenfeldt, University of Michigan
Juliet Schor, Boston College
Jacqueline Scott, Loyola University of Chicago
Ciro Scotto, Ohio University
Pamela Scully, Emory University
Chad Seales, The University of Texas at Austin
Daniel Segal, Pitzer College
Christopher Segall, University of Cincinnati
Claire Seiler, Dickinson College
Renee Sentilles, Case Western Reserve University
Mihaela Serban, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Yuksel Sezgin, Syracuse University
Daniel Shanahan, Northwestern University
S. Shankar, University of Hawai`i MÄnoa
Gary Shapiro, University of Richmond
Judith Shapiro, Barnard College
Mitra Sharafi, University of Wisconsin Law School
Jocelyn Sharlet, University of California, Davis
Gila Sher, University of California, San Diego
Rachel Short, Shenandoah University
David Shumway, Carnegie Mellon University
Alexander Silbiger, Duke University
Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania
Alan Singer, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Jeffrey Sklansky, University of Illinois at Chicago
Kathleen Warner Slane, University of Missouri, Columbia
Laura Slatkin, New York University
Terry Smith, University of Pittsburgh
Raoul Smith, Northeastern University
Steven Smith, American Political Science Association
Jane Snyder, Ohio State University
Cheryl Soehl, University of South Carolina (retired)
Gabrielle Spiegel, Johns Hopkins University
Peter Stansky, Stanford University
Jared Stark, Eckerd College
Orin Starn, Duke University
Lucia Stavig, University of Pennsylvania
Janet Stemwedel, San José State University
Catharine Stimpson, Professor Emerita, Dean Emerita, New York University
Laura Stivers, Dominican University of California
Paul Stoller, West Chester University and Florida Atlantic University/Erlangen-Nutemberg
Anise Strong, Western Michigan University
Peter Sturman, University of Californnia, Santa Barbara
Richard Terdiman, University of California, Santa Cruz
Z. Thomas, The University of Texas at Austin
Gwynn Thomas, University at Buffalo
Katrina Thompson, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Tamara Plakins Thornton, SUNY, Buffalo
Isaac Tibasiima, Makerere University
Jeff Titon, Brown University
Cheryl Torsney, Temple University
William Trapani, Florida Atlantic Universiity
David Troyansky, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Judith Tucker, Georgetown University
Jeffrey Tulis, The University of Texas at Austin
Alison Turner, ACLS Leading Edge Postdoctoral Fellow
Dmitri Tymoczko, Princeton Univeristy
Deborah Valenze, Barnard College
Edward Vazquez, Middlebury College (New College Alum, Class of 1997)
Charlene Vincent,
Patricia Waddy, Syracuse University
Mara Wade, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Gayle Wald, George Washington University
Alan Wallach, William and Mary
Christophe Wall-Romana, University of Minnesota
Ellie Walsh, Governors State University
Lori Walters, Florida State University
Orrin Wang, Department of English, University of Maryland
Sarah Warren, Lewis & Clark College
John Warren, University of Iowa
Daniel Warshawsky, New York Law School
Jens Watts, Brigham Young University
Igor Webb, Adelphi University
Gillian Weiss, Case Western Reserve University
Richard West, Emerson College
David White, University of California, Santa Barbara
Thomas Wilson, Florida Atlantic University
Marian Wilson Kimber, University of Iowa
Rachel Wimpee, Rockefeller Archive Center
Chamee Yang, Seoul National University
Gale Yee, Episcopal Divinity School
Thomas Yee, University of Texas at San Antonio
Jeremy Young, PEN America
Stephanie Yuhl, College of the Holy Cross
Kimberly Zarecor, Iowa State University
Lawrence Zbikowski, University of Chicago
Kathryn Zeiler, Boston University School of Law
Mariah Zeisberg, University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University
Sergei Zhuk, Ball State University
Mary Zimmerman, University of Kansas
Angela Zito, New York University
Michael Zuckert, Notre Dame University
