The Secret Lives of Right-Wing Professors: A Conversation with Joshua Dunn

This next edition of Liberty Law Talk is a conversation with Joshua Dunn on a new book that he has co-authored with Jon Shields entitled Passing on the Right. Dunn and Shields interviewed 153 professors across a range of disciplines who consider themselves conservatives and libertarians. Their findings paint a more moderate position on the types of challenges conservative academics face compared to much conventional thinking on this subject. Evidence that they are the victims of a systematic campaign of exclusion and persecution doesn’t seem to exist. What does seem to exist is a host of other problems that must be carefully navigated. For example, many interviewees report self-censoring their comments and publications in various ways in order to receive tenure or other opportunities. But Dunn also reports that conservatives in the academy have found ways to get hired, obtain tenure, and thrive.