Scholarship Suppression: Theoretical Perspectives and Emerging Trends

Sean T. Stevens, Lee Jussim and Nathan Honeycutt
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Sean T. Stevens: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
Lee Jussim: Department of Psychology Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8554, Canada
Nathan Honeycutt: Department of Psychology Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8554, Canada

Societies, 2020, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: This paper explores the suppression of ideas within an academic scholarship by academics, either by self-suppression or because of the efforts of other academics. Legal, moral, and social issues distinguishing freedom of speech, freedom of inquiry, and academic freedom are reviewed. How these freedoms and protections can come into tension is then explored by an analysis of denunciation mobs that exercise their legal free speech rights to call for punishing scholars who express ideas they disapprove of and condemn. When successful, these efforts, which constitute legally protected speech, will suppress certain ideas. Real-world examples over the past five years of academics that have been sanctioned or terminated for scholarship targeted by a denunciation mob are then explored.

Keywords: free speech; academic freedom; free inquiry; censorship; conformity; moral panics; witch hunts; heresy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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