Book Talk: Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom

Academic freedom rests on a shared belief that the production of knowledge advances the common good. In an era of education budget cuts, wealthy donors intervening in university decisions, and right-wing groups threatening dissenters, scholars cannot expect that those in power will value their work. Can academic freedom survive in this environmentand must we rearticulate what academic freedom is in order to defend it? Author and eminent feminist historian Joan Scott (author) and scholar Carolyn Rouse (Anthropology) discuss these pressing questions.