Dissent, hierarchy, and inclusion

Academic freedom is sometimes thought to be in tension with the goals of diversity and inclusion, but there are at least two ways in which these important values are complementary.

First, and most directly, the voices of diverse colleagues should be welcomed and protected. Explicit recognition of academic freedom, including dissent, is one way to promote this form of inclusion.

Second, academic freedom protections can promote inclusion because faculty members of color are more likely to be junior colleagues and therefore more vulnerable. As an untenured faculty member at a liberal arts college, I was told by a full professor, referring to an assistant professor who is a person of color, “When [the professor] gets tenure, she will be a respected member of the department.” I was also warned that some full professors in the department thought that assistant professors “should keep quiet and get their work done.” All of this was by way of reminding me that I was the most junior member of the department, so I do not think the comments were motivated by race or gender bias. But they illustrate how disrespect for junior faculty may interact with race and gender differences in seniority to disproportionately silence diverse perspectives, so that protections for junior faculty do some extra work as protections for faculty from historically underrepresented groups.