Invitation: Melbourne Symposium on Intellectual Freedom in the Academy
Please join me in Melbourne on Tuesday, May 21 for a discussion of academic freedom in Australia and abroad
On behalf of the Free Speech Union of Australia, I am organizing a symposium on Intellectual Freedom in the Academy, to be held the afternoon of May 21 in Melbourne:
The Free Speech Union will soon be releasing full details of the event, but in the meantime academics and people interested in academia are invited to submit abstracts (directly to me) for presentations that they might make at the symposium. Abstracts are invited for presentations on all issues related to intellectual freedom in the academy, including (but not limited to) topics like:
Academic freedom in research and teaching
Viewpoint diversity in the classroom
Gatekeeping in government grantmaking
The suppression of politically incorrect science
The politics of diversity, equity, and inclusion
The scholarly impacts of indigenisation policies
How hiring practices shape future scholarship
Political threats to academic job security
Please e-mail expressions of interest including a title, authors, affiliations, and an abstract of no more than 200 words directly to me at salvatore.babones@sydney.edu.au or by reply to this announcement.
Please note that the symposium will be held in conjunction with a larger FSU event featuring a speech by Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth.
For full consideration, abstracts should be received by May 3, 2024. Participating scholars will be invited to submit short papers of 2000-5000 words for publication roughly two months after the symposium. We are currently in negotiations to publish the symposium papers in a reputable scholarly venue. The contribution of a paper is not a requirement of participation in the symposium.
The FSU will be setting a registration fee for the symposium, but a full registration fee waiver will be offered to presenters. Please note that travel funding is not available from the organisers for this event. Unfortunately, I currently do not know whether or not the event will be broadcast.
I hope to see some of you in Melbourne, and of course I will let everyone know how things go at the event!
The Salvatore Babones Newsletter will return.