Faculty Senate hosts a forum on academic freedom and free expression
The Western Washington University Faculty Senate will host a Thursday, March 14 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. .
Speakers will include:
Jennifer Ruth, associate dean in the College of the Arts and a professor in the School of Film at Portland State University. She is a contributing editor for Academe Blog and the author, with Michael B茅rub茅, of . She has written about academic freedom and higher education in such publications as The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Ms. and is a co-editor, with Ellen Schrecker and Valerie Johnson, of , to be published by the Beacon Press in the spring of 2024.
Thomas Merrill, associate professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs and the chair of the Faculty Senate (AY 2024-25) for American University. A political theorist, he is the author of (Cambridge, 2015) and a co-editor of (University of Kansas Press, 2018). He directs AU鈥檚 , a core texts certificate program for first and second year students, and is a co-editor of the journal . In 2021-22 Merrill was the faculty co-chair of AU鈥檚 Working Group on Free Expression, which drafted the university鈥檚 and AU鈥檚 . He is currently faculty co-chair of AU鈥檚 new , which is considering the university鈥檚 free expression commitments in the light of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The event will also include a discussion and Q&A session moderated by Professor of Economics Brandon Dupont, president of the Faculty Senate.