Universities in many liberal democracies, such as the US, the UK, or Germany, grapple with a pivotal question: how much room should be given to controversial utterances? On the one side, there are those who advocate for limiting permissible speech on campus to create a safe environment for a diverse student body and counter the mainstreaming of…

In this paper, I criticize two recent and influential arguments for no-platforming advanced by Robert Simpson and Amia Srinivasan and by Neil Levy, respectively. What both arguments have in common is their attempt to reconcile no-platforming with liberal values. For Simpson and Srinivasan, no-platforming does not contradict liberalism if grounded…

Freedom of speech and civil discourse in higher education are crucial to the personal and academic development of students. This essay begins with a brief overview of the protected status of freedom of speech, and the connection to civil discourse in higher education. Then, the issue of growing divisiveness in American society is examined, and how…

The essay addresses the rise of what we elect to call 'the religious left'. Documenting the collapse between radicality and religiosity as identity politics embraces moral absolutism, the essay offers a critique of the culture wars and the ensuing flight from political confrontation. Attending in particular to the failures of the left, which we…

This document records testimony from a hearing before the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development of the Committee on Education and the Workforce on protecting free speech on college campuses. Opening statements were provided by: (1) Honorable Burgess Owens, Chairman, Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Workforce…

This dissertation aims to explore whether, amidst the significant trend of social individualization, Chinese citizenship education can achieve its goal of cultivating the so-called 'loyal socialist citizens'. Unlike citizenship education in Western democracies, which fosters constitutional patriotism, Chinese citizenship education seeks to…

Background or Context: Public school library book challenges have garnered ample media attention in recent years as many school districts and advocacy organizations have reported record numbers of book challenges. Book challenges are not a new phenomenon, historically speaking, but they have often illuminated values clashes in communities and…

Libraries have always been civic institutions in their communities. Whether it's a public library supporting community members with election information or a school library offering 18-year-olds voter registration opportunities, participating in civic matters is a mission that comes naturally to librarians. In this article, Carolyn Foote recalls…

The heightened use of "safe space" in educational settings has been the subject of polarizing contemporary controversy and protested by conservative and progressive camps alike, raising concerns about whether "safe space" remains an educationally viable concept. In response to claims that safety is conflated with…

The controversy about using inappropriate language in children's literature is constantly debated and repeatedly attracts the attention of the public. In Slovenia, this happened when the novel Na zeleno vejo by Andrej Predin was assigned as the text for the Cankar competition, a Slovenian language competition. Several reading mentors and other…

According to the ACLU (2005), ". . .at times of national stress -- real or imagined -- First Amendment rights come under enormous pressure." So, too, academic freedom of expression for faculty, staff, and students has become a casualty in the post-9/11 world. Academics were criticized and reprimanded for not being patriotic enough. Using…

Self-censorship is widely practiced in university communities, under-discussed though it is. One suggestion for dealing with self-censorship is that universities and professors post rules of conduct designed to facilitate free and open discussion of sensitive topics. Rules are good for solving coordination problems, but self-censorship stems from…

Freedom of speech in universities is currently an issue of widespread concern and debate. Recent empirical findings in the UK shed some light on whether speech is unduly restricted in the university, but it suffers from two limitations. First, the results appear contradictory. Some studies show that the issue of free speech is overblown by media…

In 2023, Federal Pell Grant funding was reinstated for learners who are incarcerated, and new regulations were released to govern the eligibility of higher education in prison programs for such funding. This has driven increased interest in higher education in prison programming, as programs look to help their students access Pell grants and…

Applying a content warning to metadata and archival descriptions is a practice that libraries increasingly embrace, even though the American Library Association considers content labeling to be censorship under the Library Bill of Rights. The language used in a content warning, such as "offensive" or "harmful," carries…