Free Speech Union of Australia

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.