Think About It

What is the theory of language behind our understanding of free speech? Sonia Das is Professor of Anthropology at NYU and the author of Linguistic Rivalries: Tamil Migrants and Anglo-Franco Conflicts (2016). As a specialist in linguistic anthropology, she wants to know how abstract ideas about speech are lived by human beings, and how language not only reflects the world we live in, but constructs...

Did the civil rights movement owe its existence to free speech, or is free speech the result of social movements? Fred Schauer, Distinguished Professor of Law the University of Virginia, thinks most people have got the causation backwards. In this episode, he tells us about the history of legal interpretations of the First Amendment, and the costs of enforcing the speech rights of hate groups. Sch...

Charlottesville was not about speech but violence. In this episode I speak with Ben Doherty, the Head of Library Instruction and a Research Librarian at the University of Virginia School of Law, who discusses the events of August 2017 in light of the violence that occurred, and how a narrow focus on speech obscures the issues we still need to grapple with today. Uli Baer teaches literature and pho...

How can Charlottesville recover from the carnage of summer 2017? John Mason, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, discusses the violent and troubled history of Charlottesville and the U.S. South, what to do with Confederate statues, and coming to terms with the collective trauma of the events of summer 2017. Mason is Professor of History at the University of Virginia, and teaches Af...

What does power have to do with free speech? Sarah Kenny is a former student and president of the student council at the University of Virginia. In this interview, she talks about the contested legacy of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia, disputes over civility, and the experience of being at the center of the terrible events of the summer 2017. Uli Baer teaches literature and photogr...

What do you do when your college is at the center of a national controversy? Nicholas Whittaker is a rising senior at Harvard College, where he studies philosophy. In his free time, he contributes opinion writings to the Harvard Crimson. In this episode, he talks about the misconstrual of student demands against inviting speakers such as Charles Murray, and the responsibility of prestigious univer...

Has the First Amendment become a weapon for the far-right? Robert Post, Professor and former Dean at Yale Law School, discusses the First Amendment, its interpretations, uses and misuses, and the varied ways in which speech is regulated in America. Post’s expertise lies in First Amendment and constitutional law, legal history, and equal protection. Uli Baer teaches literature and photography as Un...

Is believing in free speech a little like believing in Santa Claus? Carolyn Rouse, Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University explains the historical, cultural, and contextual nature of speech, better ways to think about trigger warnings, and teaching students the patient art of critical thinking. Rouse is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University. Her wo...

Is there a constitutionally sound way to regulate hate speech? Richard Delgado, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama is one of the founders of Critical Race Theory, and author of "Must We Defend Nazis?" He speaks to us about the essential relationship between free speech and equality. His work focuses on race, the legal profession, and social change. Uli Baer teaches literature and photog...

Why aren't we talking about the 14th Amendment? Tanya Hernández, Professor of Law at Fordham University, talks to Think About It about the necessity of discussing the First Amendment and the Fourteenth in the same breath, how an understanding of freedom of expression in the First is incomplete without raising the guarantee of equality in the Fourteenth, and the fallacious soapbox theory of free sp...

Is "speech" the major underlying issue in recent Supreme Court decisions? Kate Shaw is Professor of Law at the Cardozo School of Law, a former Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President in the White House Counsel’s Office. In this conversation, she speaks to Think About It about constitutional jurisprudence around speech, current developments in constitutional law, a...

Why does America think so differently about speech from the rest of the world? Julie Suk was Professor of Law at Cardozo and now teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center. In this episode, Suk about the different ways in which different democracies understand speech, the dangers posed by populist nationalism across the globe to free expression, and expertise as the basis of regulating speech on campus....

Could limits on speech result in totalitarianism? Is the entirety of the developed world already lost? Jeremy Waldron, University Professor in the School of Law at New York University, doesn't quite agree. Equality and dignity, he tells us, are essential to free speech and hate speech is an "environmental issue.” Waldron is interested in the rule of law, democracy, security, torture, and homelessn...

What are the biggest threats to free expression today? Suzanne Nossel, the Executive Director of PEN America, talks to Think About It about how she views contemporary issues around speech in America today, from President Trump's descriptions of the press as "fake news" and "the enemy of the people" to alternative news outlets that no longer respect journalistic standards, and the dangers of lettin...

How should a university deal with its past complicities with slavery and 'scientific' racism? Salma Abdelrahaman is a junior at Harvard College studying sociology and African American studies, and a former member of the college's Undergraduate Council. She talked to Think About It about Harvard's history as a center for the development of ideas of 'scientific' racism, and the effort to organize a...

What is at stake for the university in the speech debates? Prudence L. Carter is Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor of Sociology. She served as co-chair of the Commission on Free Speech for UC Berkeley with Jay Wallace, who’s also been on Think About It. Carter’s work focuses on issues of youth identity, culture, race, class, gender, u...

Does social justice need free speech? Akeel Bilgrami, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University talks about the shifting approaches to free speech in progressive activism on campus and the culturalization of the politics of equality. Professor Bilgrami is the author of Beyond the Secular West (2016), and the co-edited the collection Who’s Afraid of Academic Freedom? (2014). He is also co-edit...

There’s No Such Thing As Free Speech! Stanley Fish, Visiting Professor at the Cardozo School of Law and author of "There is No Such Thing as Free Speech," makes the case that there isn't—at least not in an absolutist sense. And universities, among other institutions, have always regulated it. One of the leading voices in the American speech debates of the last three decades. Uli Baer teaches liter...

Who has the right to speak on campus? Joan Scott, Professor Emerita at the Institute for Advanced Study on Charlottesville, free speech on campus, and the role of the university. Uli Baer teaches literature and photography as University Professor at New York University. A recipient of Guggenheim, Getty and Humboldt awards, in addition to hosting "Speaking of…” he hosts (with Caroline Weber) the po...