A U S T R A L I A N
U N I V E R S I T I E S ’
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Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons University of Queensland
Introduction Academic freedom – however elusive – is widely championed as the foundation of a good university. Academic freedom is held up as vital, to borrow from Hannah Arendt, in speaking ‘truth to power’, and axiomatic in the pursuit of the public, or common good. More broadly, it is understood as being vital for ensuring a healthy functioning democracy, and as an antidote to the contemporary dis-ease of post truth politics. But just what is meant by ‘academic freedom’, and why has its defence – or at least some critical exploration of its politics – become so important? What forces threaten that freedom from both within and without the university sector, how have debates about academic freedom become fodder in the culture wars, and with outcomes that continue to drive the weaponisation and politicisation of universities? In guarding against the assault on academic freedom and its ripple effects, including the erosion of democratic systems of knowledge production, what forms of collective organising are being marshalled? More broadly, how might critical debates about academic freedom open up opportunities for a revitalised university that is equipped to grapple with the contemporary challenges that shape our ‘uncertain and unequal world’ (see Sharon Stein, this volume)? This special issue of Australian Universities’ Review – Academic Freedom’s Precarious Future? Why it Matters and
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What’s at Stake – engages with these, and other issues and questions. In strident and lucid ways, each of the authors that have brought this special issue to life offers analysis and opinion that is set to shape the contours of contemporary and future debates and thinking on academic freedom. A special issue on this topic is indeed timely, given amendments to the Higher Education Support Act were made in March 2021, just weeks prior to finalising this special issue. The insertion of definitions of ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘academic freedom’ – a dream realised for Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson as quid pro quo for lending her support to the Government’s steep fee increases for humanities degrees – (again) illustrates how acutely politicised academic freedom, and universities, have become. Similarly, the recent politically fuelled freedom of speech furore – demonstrated via protests on university campuses in response to a number of ‘reactionary speakers’, including widely disgraced men’s activist, Bettina Arndt – exposes how intertwined universities are in the culture wars (Funnell & Graham, 2020; NapierRaman, 2021). Each of the contributing authors to this special issue – in rich and diverse ways – showcases the contestations related to discourses of academic freedom, as well as the right/ left ideological schisms and culture wars these ignite. In so doing, they locate academic freedom – and its curtailment – within broader structural processes and dynamics that are
Academic freedom’s precarious future. Why it matters and what’s at stake Kristen Lyons
vol. 63, no. 1, 2021
