Free Speech on Campus - Hardcover

Ben-Porath, Sigal R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812250079 ISBN 13: 9780812250077

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017

Synopsis

From the University of California, Berkeley, to Middlebury College, institutions of higher learning increasingly find themselves on the front lines of cultural and political battles over free speech. Repeatedly, students, faculty, administrators, and politically polarizing invited guests square off against one another, assuming contrary positions on the limits of thought and expression, respect for differences, the boundaries of toleration, and protection from harm.

In Free Speech on Campus, political philosopher Sigal Ben-Porath examines the current state of the arguments, using real-world examples to explore the contexts in which conflicts erupt, as well as to assess the place of identity politics and concern with safety and dignity within them. She offers a useful framework for thinking about free-speech controversies both inside and outside the college classroom, shifting the focus away from disputes about legality and harm and toward democracy and inclusion. Ben-Porath provides readers with strategies to de-escalate tensions and negotiate highly charged debates surrounding trigger warnings, safe spaces, and speech that verges on hate. Everyone with a stake in campus controversies—professors, students, administrators, and informed members of the wider public—will find something valuable in Ben-Porath's illuminating discussion of these crucially important issues.

About this title

About the Author

Sigal R. Ben-Porath is Professor of Education, Political Science, and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. She is author of Citizenship under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict and Tough Choices: Structured Paternalism and the Landscape of Choice. With Rogers M. Smith, she edited the volume Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Review

Any university effort to protect freedom of speech, Ms Ben-Porath suggests, is incomplete without genuine attempts to include all students in the speaking. She calls this combination of robust speech protection and harnessing all voices "inclusive freedom". - The Economist

Beyond her worthy academic credentials, what enlivens her analysis and grounds her work in the realities of 21st-century colleges and universities is her service as chair of Penn's Committee on Open Expression... Thomas Jefferson couldn't have said it better. (LA Review of Books) 

Ben-Porath seeks to construct an ideal of "inclusive freedom," simultaneously protecting free speech, not least the speech of student protestors, while assuring first-generation college students and minorities that their dignity and opinions are respected. (Claremont Review of Books)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0812250079
• ISBN 13: 9780812250077
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 136