Teaching

As a classroom fills with students, viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement become very practical matters. How can professors address controversial subjects? How can we avoid bias and self-censorship, and model intellectual virtues like curiosity and humility? What’s the best response when students conflate ideas with harm or violence?

Professors also face attempts to restrict their traditional academic freedom to profess. Compelled speech on a syllabus, so-called “trigger warnings,” and initiatives to screen college curricula, all raise fundamental questions about intellectual integrity and the professor’s proper place in higher education.