Markets & Morality | Against "Academic Freedom" with Samuel Goldman

Controversies about academic freedom are nothing new. After World War II, Americans debated the extent of freedom in higher education in the shadow of the Cold War. While liberals asserted a broad conception of academic freedom, conservatives argued that society and academic institutions should set boundaries—especially in the classroom. Yale professor Willmoore Kendall offered one of the sharpest versions of this criticism. His ideas laid the foundation for the arguments of his student William F. Buckley, whose book God and Man at Yale: On the Superstitions of Academic Freedom helped launch the modern conservative movement.

Dr. Samuel Goldman is Associate Professor of Humanities at the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. His scholarship is at the intersection of political theory and intellectual history, with a focus on religious sources of American national identity. Goldman is author of two books: After Nationalism: Being American in a Divided Age (UPenn, 2021) and God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America (UPenn, 2018). In addition to academic work, his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many other publications.

Dr. Goldman's lecture is open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 11 in Winants Auditorium, Graves Hall. The event is hosted by Markets & Morality and cosponsored by the Department of Political Science, the Emmaus Scholars program, and the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.