Free Speech Union of Australia

We are excited to announce that tickets are on sale for the Jonathan Rauch events in Melbourne (CBD). There is a dinner on Monday the 20th of May 2024 at 7pm, as well as a public lecture on the 21st of May 2024 at 4:30pm.

Jonathan is one of the USA’s most versatile and original writers on government, public policy, and gay marriage, among other subjects. A senior fellow of the Brookings Institution in Washington and contributing writer of The Atlantic, he is the author of eight books and many articles and has received the magazine industry’s two leading prizes — the National Magazine Award (the industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) and the National Headliner Award. In addition to an academic symposium, we are hosting two public events:

• Dinner: Monday the 20th of May, 7pm. This will be a smaller event with Jonathan Rauch. The tickets include a two course meal and wine at the Oxford Scholar. Cost is $89 for members and guests and $119 for non-members.
• Lecture: Tuesday the 21st of May, 4:30pm. Free of charge. Opportunity to attend the lecture by Jonathan Rauch. This will take place in the Grand Chancellor Hotel in person in Melbourne. Online attendance is also possible, please select the correct ticket.

To buy your tickets, please click below:

Original Call for Papers

The Free Speech Union of Australia is inviting abstracts for a symposium on Intellectual Freedom in the Academy, to be held in Melbourne in the afternoon of Tuesday May 21, 2024. The symposium will be held in conjunction with a speech by Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Abstracts are invited on all topics related to intellectual freedom in the academy, including (but not limited to) topics such as:

• Academic freedom in research and teaching
• Viewpoint diversity in the classroom
• Gatekeeping in government grantmaking
• The suppression of politically incorrect science
• The politics of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• The scholarly impacts of indigenisation policies
• How hiring practices shape future scholarship
• Political threats to academic job security

Please e-mail expressions of interest including a title, authors, affiliations, and an abstract of no more than 200 words to the symposium chair, A/Prof Salvatore Babones of the University of Sydney ([email protected]).

For full consideration, abstracts should be received by May 3, 2024. Participating scholars will be invited to submit short papers of 2000-5000 words for publication roughly two months after the symposium. We are currently in negotiations to publish the symposium papers in a reputable scholarly venue. The contribution of a paper is not a requirement of participation in the symposium.

A registration fee waiver for participation in the symposium is available for those unable to secure funds from their institution but travel funding is not available from the organisers.