The ASA affirms the critical value of speech rights. Attacks on speech and speakers fundamentally jeopardize the intellectual heart of sociology and, in some cases, the wellbeing of sociologists. The rights to academic freedom and free speech must constantly be safeguarded to ensure that institutions of higher education remain laboratories of learning and expression and that the results of scholarly inquiry can contribute to the public good.
To that end, we offer the following resources for members and others to better understand academic freedom and free speech and find the tools to help protect it.
ASA Resources on Campus Speech Issues
Statement Reaffirming ASA’s Commitment to Scholarly Freedom (March 6, 2020)
ASA Statement on Campus Speech (August 22, 2017)
On Air: Sociologists Discuss Freedom of Speech on College Campuses (August 4, 2017)
Resources on Academic Freedom
How to Deal with the Dark Side of Social Media (Chronicle of Higher Education, September 8, 2021)
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus
Best Practices for Conducting Risky Research and Protecting Yourself from Online Harassment (Data & Society)
On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes (AAUP)
Faculty Under Attack (Sociologists for Women in Society)
Modern Language Association Toolkit on Academic Freedom
American Association of University Professors Resources on Academic Freedom
The Outrage Peddlers are Here to Stay (Chronicle of Higher Education, November 17, 2020)
Tips for Responding to Right-Wing Attacks (Inside Higher Ed, November 7, 2017)
Sociologists on Campus Speech: Op eds, news articles, and blogs
Trump calls critical race theory ‘un-American.’ Let’s review.
By Victor Ray (The Washington Post, October 2, 2020)
What’s at Stake for Higher Ed in the Election?
(The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 14, 2020)
Professors Are Targets In Online Culture Wars; Some Fight Back
(NPR, April 4, 2018)
Academic Outrage: When The Culture Wars Go Digital
Blog post by Tressie McMillan
On the Recent Attacks and Violence toward Progressive Scholars
editorial by David G. Embrick, David L. Brunsma (Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, August 18, 2017)
How a Group of Instructors Is Standing Up to the Right-Wing Outrage Machine
(Chronicle of Higher Education, September 13, 2017)
Belly of the Beast: Sociologists call for a systematic response to online targeting of and threats against public scholars
(Inside Higher Ed, August 14, 2017)
‘If There’s an Organized Outrage Machine, We Need an Organized Response’
By Chris Quintana (Chronicle of Higher Education, July 18, 2017)
Protect Scholars Against Attacks From the Right
By Jessie Daniels and Arlene Stein (Inside Higher Ed, June 26, 2017)
Op-Ed: The case for restricting hate speech
By Laura Beth Nielsen (Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2017)
There’s a well-funded campus industry behind the Ann Coulter incident
By Amy Binder (Washington Post, May 1, 2017)
Sociological Research
Freedom of Expression versus Diversity and Inclusion
By Thomas Cushman (Contexts, August 2019)
Sociology and Its Publics: Reframing Engagement and Revitalizing the Field
by Douglas Hartmann (The Sociological Quarterly, 2016)
(To suggest any additional resources for this page, please email us at [email protected])
