The DC Sociological Society has signed on in support of two recent statements supporting academic freedom in the face of ongoing attacks against education and science by the current Trump Administration.
The first, organized by the American Sociological Association, is an “Open Letter in Support of Academia: How Sociology Benefits Universities and Society.” The 14 organizational signatories “stand firmly in opposition to recent federal policy that seeks to stifle universities and academic inquiry.” The letter states further that “[t]hese attempts to silence and discredit [social institutions] do a massive disservice to society at large that will have far-reaching, adverse impacts.” It concludes by calling on “university leaders to resist efforts to stifle scientific discovery and to challenge the attempts to silence academics working in universities and other settings. We call on universities to support sociology departments, students, and faculty and reject efforts to restrict the teaching of sociology at their institutions. Now more than ever, it is critical that leaders—at universities, in private industry, and in the public sector—state plainly that academia benefits society and that sociology is an essential way that it does so.”
The “Declaration To Defend Research Against U.S. Government Censorship,” which has been signed by more than 4,400 individuals and organizations as of this date, is a call for “members of the worldwide scholarly communication community … to publicly condemn and resist the censorship of academic research.” The Declaration argues that “[s]cholarly/scientific research generates globally shared knowledge that serves humanity. The integrity and advancement of this knowledge requires that scholars can freely conduct, collaborate on, and share their research, and are freely able to examine and discuss the work of their peers. Government censorship and restrictions on terminology, research topics, or methods fundamentally compromise these scholarly endeavors and their integrity.”
Signatories to the Declaration commit to at least one of four recommended actions: “(1) Support instances of resistance to U.S. government censorship. (2) Promote venues for scholars to share, safeguard, and preserve their work, beyond the reach of censorship. (3) Participate in efforts to track and record instances of U.S. government censorship. (4) Share this Declaration broadly and encourage individuals and organizations in your communities to sign and support it.”
In addition to these two statements, our page on “Resources for Tracking Trump Administration Actions” includes numerous statements responding to specific prior actions, and has been reorganized to include a new section on “Statements and Calls for Collective Action.”
