— Iveta Silova, Professor of Comparative and International Education, Arizona State UniversityMeanwhile, people inside and outside academia are combing websites, syllabi, presentations and public writing in search of what they consider ideological infractions. This type of peer surveillance can reward silence, incentivize erasure and turn institutions against their own.
When universities start regulating not just what they say but what they teach, support and stand for – driven by fear rather than principle – they are no longer just reacting to political threats, they are internalizing them. And as history has shown, that may mark the beginning of the end of their academic independence.
Replicated under Fair Use from Universities in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union thought giving in to government demands would save their independence by Iveta Silova, Professor of Comparative and International Education, Arizona State University.