Universities must lead debate on free speech, new book argues
A fascinating new book on how to support free speech on university campuses, co-edited by Professor Alison Scott Baumann and Hasan Pandor, calls for universities to be more active in developing a culture of free speech to shift today’s highly polarised and politicised debate.
How to Develop Free Speech on Campus: International Controversies and Communities of Inquiry brings together a collection of international voices exploring the recent history and limits of free speech legislation in the sector.
Responding to the turbulence caused by the free speech “wars” – that is ‘all must be free to say what they like’ versus ‘you must not disagree with me’ – the book draws on perspectives from linguistics, philosophy and sociology to examine the difficulties that arise around the political use of legislation to regulate speech, and offers practical pedagogic alternatives to protect free speech.
Featured case studies from eight countries are represented with contributions from SOAS scholars Dr Yenn Lee, Reader in Research Methodology, and Dr Mayur Suresh, Reader in Law. The case studies show how group conversation can be developed in good faith by group acceptance of shared values and the conviction that it is both necessary and possible to make a difference: to have voice and agency on controversial subjects, even through disagreement.
...the [university] sector must recognise itself as a leader in this debate and better support its experts to inform policy-making and improve government, society, and the cultural environment.
One of the recommendations is to support structured engagement by establishing negotiated boundaries for challenging discussions. The authors argue that, paradoxically, this can provide a space to explore controversies more freely, because participants can explore issues within agreed territory.
As people communicate more frequently through phones and digital spaces, Professor Alison Scott-Baumann and Hasan Pandor explain how our intuition is becoming blunted: “Algorithms invite us to believe that there is more reality to be found on our phones than in the physical world; our capacity to relate to others is thus much reduced. By restricting our communication to interior monologues or online echo chambers, the physical features of language and interpersonal skills are often absent: sensing someone's mood, making eye contact, reading body language, considering context, letting silence happen, avoiding violence.”
Against this backdrop, the book demonstrates how extreme binaries can thrive and effectively destroy the middle ground. Gender is often reduced to the polarised terms of biology versus identity. Israel–Palestine becomes a discussion between antisemitism versus international law, and artificial intelligence in education is rendered a debate between indispensability versus fear.
Intriguingly, the book calls for universities to recognise two uncomfortable truths: the need for universities to better support staff and students to work together in class to exercise academic freedom; and also that the sector must recognise itself as a leader in this debate and better support its experts to inform policy-making and improve government, society, and the cultural environment.
Reflecting on the interventions in the book, SOAS Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adam Habib, who contributed the foreword calls for a commitment to plurality, political tolerance and civil engagement on contentious issues: “Only when we become consistent advocates and practitioners of academic freedom can we then counteract and fight against the systemic attempts by government and others to erode academic freedom. We need to recognise our collective agency and the necessity of activating it. The future of the university is in the hands of its inhabitants.”
