Versions of Academic Freedom: From Professionalism to Revolution

The author and New York Times columnist sheds light on the intersection of academia and politics with this look at the debate surrounding academic freedom.

Depending on who's talking, academic freedom is an essential bulwark of democracy, an absurd fig leaf disguising liberal agendas, or, most often, some in-between muddle that both exaggerates its own importance and misunderstands its actual value to scholarship. The crucial question, Fish tells us, is located in the phrase itself: Do you...