Academic Freedom in America
Saturday, September 5, 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA | Register here
Virtual | Full Paper Panel
Participants:
- (Chair) Lauren Cohen Bell, Randolph-Macon College
- (Discussant) Chris Bonneau, University of Pittsburgh
Session Description:
Academic freedom in America is being targeted by political officials and policies. From executive orders to state legislation, the freedom of academics to speak in their classrooms, at their institutions, and through their research is facing new restrictions. These restrictions on academic freedom expose a general tension in democratic regimes between popular sovereignty and accountability, on the one hand, and the need for expert knowledge (especially in complex societies like the U.S.), on the other hand. The founding of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in 1915 led to the articulation of an American model of academic freedom through its Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure. In this articulation of academic freedom, faculty are not subject to direct control by the state. Instead, they are accountable through institutions, disciplines, and public purposes. The conditions for faculty development and dissemination of expertise through such institutions of higher education are not protected in the way that the individual right to freedom of expression is in the U.S. With an understanding that academic freedom is not just a civil liberty, this panel explores the state of academic freedom in the U.S. today, given that professional autonomy of faculty members, as articulated by AAUP, is democratically justified but ever more politically endangered. This panel features two papers by academics analyzing the context for academic freedom today at institutions in U.S. states where new laws challenging it have been adopted as well as another paper analyzing 2024 APSA survey data on political scientists’ own perceptions of academic freedom in the profession.