CALL FOR PAPERS

Volume 17, 2025

Deadline for Papers—December 15, 2024

THEME: The University in the Crossfire: Quandaries over Neutrality, Moral Responsibility, Corporatization, and the Protection of Free Speech in Difficult Times

CONTROVERSIAL SCENARIO:

Is institutional neutrality enough? Caught between students and donors, our institutions of higher learning have sought refuge from hard moral choices by moving to a role as neutral observers, facilitating the expressions of their individual members but not of the institutions themselves. Is this position adequate? Are there no universal principles the university should advocate? There are particular reasons underlying the existence of universities that differentiate them from corporations of other kinds. Have we lost our understanding of how we are distinct? Are we of such neutrality that we cannot articulate our distinct societal identity? In that identity may lie our reason for being.

We invite authors to bring clarity and understanding to this issue that again has found itself in the public debate with the recent student protests and testimony of university presidents at a contentious hearing before the U.S. Congress on the balance between neutrality, moral responsibility, and protecting free speech. We welcome papers that will elevate the public discussion of this issue.