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Never have American universities been so taken to task in French public debates.\u00a0Rare were the speeches, during the controversy generated by the recent remarks of the Minister of Higher Education on the radical research currents in the French university, which did not refer to the United States by them. ”\u00a0\u00a0Demonizing<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0“.\u00a0Indeed, according to a good number of analyzes, it is from across the Atlantic that one of the most serious contemporary attacks on academic freedom comes.<\/p>\n Cancel culture, Wokeness, Triggers warnings, Safe spaces\u2026 so many concepts that the media have seized upon to describe American campuses which, for a few years now, have been the theaters of an unprecedented restriction on freedom of expression, in the name of defense minorities and a new \u201cright not to be offended\u201d.\u00a0Our French universities are said to be, almost by contagion, from now on also threatened since,\u00a0according to the minister<\/a>\u00a0, \u201cacademics say themselves prevented by others from carrying out their research, their studies\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet if there is a cornerstone of the American academic and research space, it is academic freedom.\u00a0Its legal basis is the first amendment to the American Constitution of 1791, the one which guarantees\u00a0freedom of expression<\/a>\u00a0, the founding principle of national identity, against any restriction, particularly from political power.\u00a0It should be remembered that in France, academic freedom, in the sense of the independence and free expression of teachers and researchers, has been\u00a0guaranteed at the constitutional level since 1984<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n Even if the constant jurisprudence of the Supreme Court attaches academic freedom to this First Amendment, the American Constitution does not, however, explicitly mention freedom of teaching and research, nor the specific context of universities.\u00a0It is therefore the academics themselves who have given themselves the means to define and guarantee the exercise of this freedom.<\/p>\n In wake of President Trump’s remarks threatening the institutional autonomy of colleges and universities and undermining the role of faculty, here is a video to explain what #AcademicFreedom<\/a> is and why it’s so important to protect. https:\/\/t.co\/qkNG865mGC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/0ChJJPNCvv<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u2014 American Association of University Professors (@AAUP) March 22, 2019<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nAcademic freedom, a historical principle of American universities<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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