Free to Teach: Democracy, Citizenship and the Search for Knowledge
Bernard West Memorial Lecture in American History
Event Details:
The American education system is under intense scrutiny amidst fights over free speech, curriculum and cultural diversity while simultaneously facing the threat of historic cuts in resources, from urban and rural kindergartens to Ivy League and state universities. What do Americans stand to lose without a robust commitment to both academic freedom and public funding for basic and higher education? What critiques of our education system are fair and how much have politics intruded on teaching and learning? Columbia University President Emeritus Lee C. Bollinger, journalist James Traub, and moderator Emma Green discuss how the classroom is at the forefront of the battle for core American values under the First Amendment, and the mission of educating a new generation in engaged democratic citizenship.
Lee C. Bollinger is president emeritus and Seth Low Professor of the University at Columbia, as well as the author of University: A Reckoning. James Traub is the author of The Cradle of Citizenship: How Schools Can Help Save Democracy and the Substack, "A Democracy, If You Can Keep It." Emma Green (moderator) is a staff writer at the New Yorker covering culturing conflicts in academia.
Location:
The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at The New York Historical, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024
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James Traub photo by Elizabeth Easton
