The (Un)free University On the Deplatforming Debate and the Liberal Notion of Academic Freedom

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2021-08-31

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en

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This thesis explores the concept of academic freedom underpinning popular and academic debates about deplatforming. Using the case study of professor Charles Murray’s attempted deplatforming at Middlebury University, it explores the role of academic freedom in localized and generalized deplatforming discourse. Through a reading of John Stuart Mill and John Dewey, as well as contemporary scholarly debate, it argues that the concept of academic freedom at play here is a specific, liberal conception. Finally, using Stanley Fish and Herbert Marcuse, this thesis explores some of the limitations of liberal academic freedom - first and foremost its preoccupation with deplatforming in a time when the academy faces far greater threats.

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Faculteit der Filosofie, Theologie en Religiewetenschappen

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