The right to enquire? A symposium on academic freedom

Join us on Tuesday 25 November, at the Congress of HASS, at The University of Melbourne, to explore what it means to define, contest and safeguard academic freedom in the 21st century.

Earnest discussions about academic freedom are often prompted by events outside the academy. The McCarthy era “loyalty oaths” imposed in some 1950s US universities provide one example. More recently, there have been some high-profile cases of alleged deplatforming accompanied by persistent populist anxieties about speech codes, cancel culture, and safe spaces.

As Robert French AC has recognised, it is important, in thinking about academic freedom, to distinguish what it permits (and in turn requires) from more general notions of freedom of speech. Academic freedom is recommended on the grounds that it is crucial to effective knowledge-making and, unlike unfettered freedom of speech, is practised subject to the norms and values of scholarly and scientific enquiry.

If academic freedom, however, protects the liberty of the scholar to choose topics, methods, and modes of presentation, it also requires the provision of material, cultural, and institutional supports. Scholars and scientists need funding, libraries, laboratories, cadres of ancillary staff, and eager next-generation successors. They also require an academic culture that strikes a fruitful balance between a solid grounding in established practice and a spirit of contrariety and innovation.

This symposium seeks to explore these enduring as well as pressing themes, questions and dilemmas.

Event details

Academic Freedom: the right to enquire
Date: 8.30am-6.30pm, 25 November 2025
Venue: Forum Theatre (153), Arts West - North Wing (Building 148a), The University of Melbourne
Registration: This is a free event. Bookings are essential. Unfortunately, hybrid participation is not available for this event, due to technical limitations of venue, however session videos will be available after the event
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We gratefully acknowledge the support of Taylor and Francis for this event.