EVENT: Censorship in the Sciences

Register for the conference at the University of Southern California, Jan. 10-12, 2025

Event

CENSORSHIP IN THE SCIENCES: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES

Register for the conference at the University of Southern California, Jan. 10-12, 2025 (Fri-Sun)

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FBT’s Michael David Cobb Bowen and Jake Mackey will speak at USC’s Censorship in the Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives conference, which runs from January 10-12, on a panel titled “Organizational and Institutional Responses to Censorship.” We’ll discuss our creation of Free Black Thought as a response to censorship.

Open to the public! REGISTER HERE.

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Conference keynotes:

• Jonathan Rauch: The War on Truth—And How to Win It

  

• Jacob Mchangama: The Free Speech Recession and How to Reverse It: Five Lessons from History

  

• Wilfred Reilly: Title TBD

  

• Greg Lukianoff: How Cancel Culture Destroys Trust in Expertise

  

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Reception

Friday the 10th, 5:45pm–8:00pm.

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Film screening

Saturday the 11th, 5:45pm-6:45pm — 15 Days, a film about COVID and school closures.

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Topics to be discussed

• What is censorship? When is it bad and when is it good? Ethical reasons for censorship.

• Scientific freedom versus social responsibility; tradeoffs between pro-social considerations and scientific progress

• Science of censorship and philosophical roots of censorship; mechanisms of censorship (e.g., by scientists themselves, funding agencies, review panels, editorial boards, professional societies and organizations)

• Compelled speech as a form of censorship

• Censorship of research results versus censorship of discussion on science policy

• Censorship as a part of cancel culture

• Censorship of scientists in the public square

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Panel featuring two FBT founders:

Organizational and Institutional Responses to Censorship (Saturday 10:40am-12pm):

• Barry Honig: American Academy of Sciences and Letters

• Lee Jussim: Society for Open Inquiry in Behavioral Science

• Anna Krylov: Academic Freedom Alliance

• Sean Stevens: Breaking the Shell of Ostrich Syndrome; Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

• Abigail Thompson: Association of Mathematical Research

• Scott Turner: National Association of Scholars

• Ilya Reviakine: On Samizdat

• Jake Mackey and Michael Bowen: In Defense of Free (Black) Thought.

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REGISTER HERE: Censorship in the Sciences is open to the public.

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All sessions live-streamed and recorded. Get on the mailing list to receive updates about the live-streaming: https://heterodoxatusc.substack.com/about

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Conference organized by Anna Krylov (USC), Arie Kapteyn (USC, CESR), Margaret Crable (USC Dornsife, Communication), Michele Warnock (USC, CESR), Lee Jussim (Rutgers), and Ivan Marinovic (Stanford), and sponsored by Heterodox Academy, American Academy of Sciences & Letters (AASL), The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University, and USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, with support from FIRE, Academic Freedom Alliance, and others.