Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom

Welcome to the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.

We believe that teaching, learning, and the pursuit of knowledge are essential to creating and sustaining multi-racial and plurinational societies. For those of us working and studying within institutions of higher education, this means pursuing knowledge wherever it leads, free from intimidation and retaliation. Such freedoms serve as the foundation upon which we educate students, produce and disseminate credible research, nurture artistic expression, and foster critical inquiry.

Mission Statement

The Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom is committed to preserving and expanding conditions that make it possible to work, teach, learn, create, and share knowledge in ways that promote the common good. The Center serves as a resource and knowledge hub for all people—including faculty, students, campus workers, alumni, administrators, trustees, parents, journalists, policymakers, and business leaders—seeking to build a flourishing higher education system, rooted in institutional autonomy, workplace democracy, and freedom from coercion and external interference.

To work towards these goals we:

• create practical resources and build strategic partnerships for those engaged in defending academic freedom,
• produce original research that can serve as the evidentiary basis for this work, and
• communicate the value of academic freedom and institutional autonomy to wide audiences.

Contact Us

Isaac Kamola is an associate professor of political science at Trinity College. He is the author of Manufacturing Backlash (detailing the legislative attacks on academic freedom during the 2021, 2022, and 2023 legislative cycles), Free Speech and Koch Money: Manufacturing a Campus Culture War (with Ralph Wilson, 2021), and Making the World Global: US Universities and the Production of the Global Imaginary (2019), along with dozens of journal articles and book chapters. He is currently the director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and founder of Faculty First Responders, a program that monitors right-wing attacks on academics and provides resources to help faculty members and administrators respond to manufactured outrage.