DePaul Academic Freedom Conference
1-2 February 2007
DePaul University, Chicago, IL

Through the last year, the DePaul Academic Freedom Committee (AFC) has worked on campus to defend our professors and their ideas. Throughout our campaign, we noticed that the topic of academic freedom is rarely discussed in an academic setting. There are few academic conferences that feature academic freedom, a defining principal in the scholarly community.

We are pleased to present such an event at DePaul University on Feb 1-2 2008!

Conference Program (pdf)

The objective of the DePaul Academic Freedom Conference is to provide a board forum for scholars to present findings, research and exchange ideas about recent trends in academic freedom. Recently, DePaul University became the site of a number of academic freedom violations when Professors Mehrene Larudee and Norman Finkelstein were denied tenure. On Oct 12, with friends at the University of Chicago and Verso Books, AFC hosted a day long sympsium featuring a number of prominent speakers. Bearing in mind these events, DePaul University serves as a controversial but important context for such a conference.

Special speakers:

Sara Roy, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University

As'ad Abukhalil, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, California State University - Stanislous

Bill Ayers, Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois - Chicago

Ken Butigan, author, professor and peace activist

Juan Cole, Professor, Department of History, University of Michigan

Marc Ellis, University Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University

Scott Hibbard, Department of Political Science, DePaul University

Robert Jensen, Associate Professor, School of Journalism, University of Texas - Austin

Joel Kovel, Editor-in-Chief of Capitalism, Nature, Socialism journal; Distinguished Professor of Social
Studies, Bard College

Peter Novick, Professor (Emeritus), Department of History, University of Chicago

and a special documentary film presented by

Landrum Bolling, Director, Mercy Corps