AAA’s Rapid Response Network: Academic Freedom

December 8, 2020

AAA’s Rapid Response Network: Academic Freedom

The AAA Rapid Response Network on Academic Freedom was created in response to a members’ advisory motion from the floor at the AAA Business Meeting on November 18, 2016 calling upon the AAA to investigate reported attacks on anthropologists’ academic freedom and to advocate for the academic freedom of anthropologists and other scholars, with the aims of protecting vulnerable individuals, promoting accountability and preventing future violations. 

The purpose of this Rapid Response Network (RRN) is to:

1. review reports of threats to academic freedom from information submitted by members and as reported in reliable news reports and other sources;
   
   
2. track threats to academic freedom that include but are not limited to the institution of government policies and practices that threaten such freedom;
   
   
3. mobilize networks of subject matter experts among AAA members for information, input and guidance on specific cases and places; and
   
   
4. provide AAA advice and action recommendations based upon results of the networks assessment of these reports.

Current RRN Members:

Chandana Mathur - National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Marc Edelman - Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Jaymelee Kim - University of Findlay

Leah Brooke Zani - University of California, Irvine 

Aunchalee Palmquist - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill