Feminists begin to turn on their own when some deviate from the feminist party line. Professor Laura Kipnis details her experience with campus censors in this Learn Liberty video.
Professor Laura Kipnis argues that modern day feminism is actually leading to the “disempowerment” of women.
Is asking someone, “Where are you from?” an example of microaggression? These days, it’s unclear. In general, people generally apply the term microaggression to describe subtle or perceived insults on socially marginalized groups. It’s such a vague term, however, that is often used to label behavior that could mean anything—or nothing at all. Nevertheless, in […]
Some of professor Laura Kipnis’ students thought she should be fired over writing a controversial essay. Here’s her take on standing up to censorship and writing the truth as she sees it.
The form of feminism that has emerged on college campuses recently may not be so beneficial for women. Professor Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University shares her views on the direction of modern feminism on campus, and the difference between a feminism that’s about vulnerability and a feminism about liberation.
“People who target minorities don’t have a place in this community and should be expelled.” Can you believe in free speech and still have this stance on hate speech? Professor Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University explains the difference between hate speech and microagressions and how they should be handled on campus.
Northwestern University—like many universities around the country—recently banned consensual relations between faculty and students. In response to this decision, Northwestern Professor Laura Kipnis wrote an ironic essay highlighting all the professors married to former students on the campus and at other campuses around the country. In the Learn Liberty video below, Professor Kipnis discusses the […]
Numerous top comedians have said that they refuse to perform on college campuses because of their chilling climate on free speech. When even noncontroversial comedians like Jerry “What’s the deal with Ovaltine?” Seinfeld refuse to perform for college students, you know just how bad the situation has become. In the Learn Liberty video below, Northwestern […]
Limits on free speech are often justified to prevent people from offending others. But to paraphrase Nietzsche, if we can overcome what offends us, it makes us stronger. In the Learn Liberty video below, Northwestern University Professor Laura Kipnis explains how being offended can actually be an intellectual exercise which allows us to explore the […]
In the third episode of Free Speech on Campus, Laura recounts when students organized a protest against her for writing an offensive paper. Kipnis goes on to explain how lack of tenure is hurting education.
In this episode of Free Speech on Campus, professor Laura Kipnis discusses why it’s important for students to take on social stereotypes. She notes how campus humor is a good way to judge where the boundaries are for each generation.
If what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, does what doesn’t offend you make you stronger? As many push for bans on offensive speech, Professor Laura Kipnis highlights the benefits of offensive speech. In particular, she shows how examining what offends you can lead to a greater understanding of your own beliefs. By banning offensive […]
Russia has been cracking down on its internal dissent, limiting speech that does not coincide with the government’s narrow and controversial policies. Last year, up to 54 people were sent to prison for hate speech, marking a dramatic five-fold increase from five years ago. Take Anastasia Bubeyeva, for example. Bubeyeva now lives alone with her […]
Was Don Quixote a pioneer of religious freedom? Eric C. Graf, Professor of Literature at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, explains how Miguel de Cervantes used his novel Don Quixote to illustrate the negative consequences of censoring speech and religion. Do you agree with Cervantes’s argument that individuals should be left alone to have freedom of conscience? Or are there […]
Those trying to curtail free speech often invoke its very limited exceptions to achieve their goals. For example, they often point to legitimate restrictions of speech based on “time, place, and manner.” This limited legal restriction to free speech allows police to, say, prevent public speech with a loudspeaker from occurring at 2 a.m. because […]
Disagreeing with what someone has to say but defending his or her right to say it is the foundational defense of free speech. English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall sums it up well when she says: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”] This view […]
Has Citizens United protected your freedom of speech? Or has it made it so that our democracy is overrun by corporate interests?
If you’ve been part of any conversation about American higher education recently, you might have heard someone complain that colleges and universities are morphing from educators to babysitters. Now, students at Dartmouth College are fighting back against the perceived shift. Leaders of the school’s student government delivered a scathing petition, signed by 1,200 students, demanding […]
This week’s allegations that Facebook has systemically suppressed conservative speech on its news feed has rankled many users who believed they were being showed an unbiased list of “trending stories.” For some background, a report by trusted technology news source Gizmodo quoted several former Facebook employees whose job was to curate content and manage the highly-viewed and […]
In a recent commencement address at the University of Michigan, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was booed after criticizing campus safe spaces. As Yahoo News reported: The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations — not run away from them,” Bloomberg told the school’s graduating class. “One […]
Jason Riley, esteemed Wall Street Journal columnist and frequent commentator on the issues facing black Americans, was disinvited from his planned commencement speech at Virginia Tech this week. The department head and other faculty members had concerns about his writings on race, which focus on how government policy that is supposed to help black people […]
OK, so let’s say the $h!t finally hits the fan. Imagine that whomever you think would be the worst possible president has just been elected. Further, imagine that he has made clear, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother,” or that anyone who didn’t cooperate with his plans would “pay a big price.” Would you […]
Like it or not, drawing penises is a time-honored college tradition just like pulling all-nighters and playing drinking games. But when a University of Delaware student drew a penis on a giant beach ball in a free expression exercise, he was told by campus police that it violated the school’s sexual misconduct policies. It’s certainly […]
A recent incident at American University’s School of Law highlights just how divisive the issue of campus speech has become. As the Washington Post reported, it began with a note: Earlier this month, someone left a hand-written flier on the door of a faculty member’s office at American University’s Washington College of Law that read, […]