The Right To Learn

From leaders on the frontlines of the battle for academic freedom, a first-of-its-kind response to the far right’s insidious attacks on the right to learn

Spanning over 40 years of essential history through to today, The Right to Learn is a fearless collection that speaks out against the far right’s decades-long war against intellectual freedom. This instructive anthology outlines and contextualizes concepts central to today’s conversations around race, gender, and other so-called ‘divisive’ subjects.

The Right to Learn is structured in five parts that aren’t just history lessons. Together, they equip educators with the necessary tools to understand the battle—and to push back.

– Part 1 introduces and identifies the current crisis, placing it within the broader context of the ongoing attacks on American democracy

– Part 2 examines specific aspects of the right-wing campaign against higher education

– Part 3 offers perspectives from those at the heart of the defense: the academic community

– Part 4 explores the broader implications and consequences of imposing gag orders on education

– Part 5 is an appendix of relevant texts, key statements supporting and opposing related measures, and a representative sample of faculty senate resolutions

Each section features renowned leaders in colleges, universities, and educational freedom organizations. These experts put faces and names to the rampant campaigns designed to obstruct students’ right to learn. Such contributors include:

– Professor Irene Mulvey, President of the American Association of University Professors

– Dr. Jonathan Friedman, Director of the free expression and education programs at PEN America

– Dennis D. Parker, Director of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice

– Marvin Lynn, nationally recognized scholar of race in schools and advancing teacher diversity in the United States

The Right to Learn’s contributors are unafraid to speak the truth: that in the face of well-funded conservative groups set on destroying academic freedom, what’s at stake is students’ pursuit of real world and contemporary knowledge. This anthology, replete with evidence- and experience-based arguments, is a resource for those fighting on the ground for the right to learn.