Ep. 032: Dirty Little Secrets: University Funding, Academic Freedom, and Antisemitism

In this week's episode, Mike and Elizabeth talk about a report that links receipt of undisclosed foreign donations with the erosion of tolerance on U.S. campuses. Larger donations from Middle Eastern and authoritarian countries appeared especially troublesome. Correlational results indicate that a lack of university transparency about their funding sources was concurrent with reported increases in antisemitism and with challenges to norms of free expression.  Elizabeth expresses skepticism regarding any causal inferences.  Mike shares his views about the likely goals of donors from authoritarian countries and specifically discusses funds from Qatar.  Both agree with the authors that more research is warranted.

Podcast Notes:

The Corruption of the American Mind: How Concealed Foreign Funding of U.S. Higher Education Predicts Erosion of Democratic Values and Antisemitic Incidents on Campus.

From the Network Contagion Research Institute:

https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/NCRI-Report_The-Corruption-of-the-American-Mind.pdf