October 1, 2012 | Jeremy Teitelbaum

Freedom with a Capital F: The CLAS Dean Interviews Stanley Fish

Jeremy Teitelbaum and New York Times columnist Stanley Fish discuss practical issues stemming from the idea that faculty should have freedom to teach and research what they want to.

Stanley Fish

Stanley Fish

Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of CLAS.

Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a guest contributor to UConn Today. For his previous posts, click here.

 

Last week I had the privilege to sit down with Professor Stanley Fish, the legal scholar and literary theorist well known for his academic commentary in the New York Times. Prior to his public talk on academic freedom, we discussed the idea, namely that university professors are free to research and teach without administrative restrictions.

We touch on practical issues in academic freedom and how it relates to UConn, specifically with the University’s focus on the Connecticut economy.

I welcome your thoughts on the subject. Should professors be able to teach and research whatever they want? When does it get out of hand? How should administrators (like me) address issues when they come up?

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