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Shortell Declines Chairmanship After All
Just a quick update that Professor Timothy Shortell has decided not to take up the position as chair of the sociology department at Brooklyn College. This decision comes after controversy arose over his writings about religion and religious people on a non-school-related website. (Read David’s posts for more details about the legal implications for Shortell’s chairmanship and about freedom of speech for department chairs in general.)
Recent Articles
Get the latest free speech news and analysis from FIRE.
German chancellor echoes the frequent — and illiberal — call to end online anonymity
Online anonymity is vital to free speech in Germany. And the United States.
Ruling on Palestine Action ban casts even more doubt on UK’s troubling mass arrests of peaceful protesters
A UK court says banning the group Palestine Action was unlawful — after more than 2,700 arrests — but the ban remains pending appeal. So for now, supporting the group is essentially Schrödinger’s speech crime.
He refused to censor his syllabus — so Texas Tech cancelled his class
In another blow to academic freedom in the Lone Star state, Texas Tech canceled a psychology class after the professor refused to scrub race and gender from his syllabus.
Fandom’s lighthouse in a sea of censorship
In the storm of internet censorship and cancel crusades, the fanfic database Archive Of Our Own (AO3) has become a lighthouse of artistic expression.