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There’s an intensifying kind of threat to academic freedom – watchful students serving as informants

  • Written by Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
imageApproximately 58% of faculty interviewed in a national survey in 2024 reported self-censoring. PM Images/iStock/Getty Images

Texas A&M University told philosophy professor Martin Peterson in early January 2026 that he could not teach some of Greek philosopher Plato’s writings that touch on “race and gender ideology.”

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