The Right to Think at All with Katherine Franke

Thousands of student visas cancelled by the government! Legal residents snatched off the streets by masked agents, detained and deported! Federal research grants to universities scrapped! The government asserting a special right to oversee academic departments and curriculum decisions!

The frequency of events like these across the country are dizzying, and the pace is accelerating. Academic freedom is in the cross-hairs. The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Academic freedom falls within that scope, but goes far beyond: academic freedom is the right to interrogate the world, the right to teach, and the right to learn. Academic freedom is the right to think at all. We’re joined by Katherine Franke, renowned law professor, courageous scholar, and human rights champion who has endured a relentless campaign of threat and harassment because of her intrepid support of Palestinian rights.