Contemporary Academic Freedom: Contradictions, Crises, and Contextual Constraints

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Abstract

What is our contemporary understanding of academic freedom in light of a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court case, Garcetti v. Ceballos, which had the potential effect of limiting college professors’ academic freedom? Applying Actor-Network Theory on scholarly works since 2008 and court decisions since 2007 as sources of dialogue following the case, this qualitative study examined 21 scholarly articles and 66 court decisions addressing faculty academic freedom to craft a contemporary understanding of academic freedom, which highlight three shared themes of contradictory conceptions, waves of crises, and contextual constraint. These findings present today’s conception of the Thomas Hobbes and John Locke’s competing theories of our social contract.

Authors

• Jared Colston, University of Louisville

• Jeffrey C. Sun, University of Louisville