ABSTRACT
Academic freedom is anchored in origin and purpose to the protection of unorthodox ideas and minority perspectives—and, by extension, to the holders of those perspectives—within institutions of higher learning. This protection is understood as essential to the pursuit of knowledge and inquiry, the goal that lies at the heart of knowledge discovery, production, and dissemination. Contemporary conversations about academic freedom have, however, pitched it as competing with institutional obligations to uphold and promote the rights of underrepresented groups on university campuses, notably via equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. Hence, a core question that challenges contemporary universities is whether, and under what circumstances, academic freedom might be bridled to prevent or halt harm. This question can be further finessed by exploring who bears vulnerability in campus contexts and interrogating whether universities ought to intervene in curbing the exercise of academic freedom when the harm in question affects socially oppressed groups and whether such harm should be interpreted with enough breadth to tolerate instances of injury to feelings or the compromise of emotional and psychological safety.
