Campus Conversations on Free Speech

Watch University-wide campus conversations hosted by the Office of University Life, and register for upcoming events. 

Whose Freedom, Whose Speech? The Future of Campus Community
Whose Freedom, Whose Speech? The Future of Campus Community

The Office of University Life and PEN America hosted a thought-provoking discussion about free speech on campus and the recent controversies that have impacted college and university communities. The panel with leading speakers on these issues was followed by small-group conversations, led by student facilitators, focused on how can we advance inclusion on campus and uphold free expression as a community value.

Watch video from April 2019

AWAKENING OUR DEMOCRACY: Free Speech on Campus
AWAKENING OUR DEMOCRACY: Free Speech on Campus

November 1, 2017 

Columbia's conversation series on disparities and justice issues at the forefront of the University's and the nation's consciousness returns with a lively discussion about free speech on campuses. Featuring Jami Floyd (moderator), WNYC host and legal and media commentator; Jamal Greene, Columbia Law School Dwight Professor of Law; Tanya Hernandez, Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law and Associate Director, Center on Race, Law and Justice at Fordham Law School; and Suzanne Nossel, PEN America Executive Director.

Understanding Charlottesville: White Nationalism and American Society - Past, Present and Future
Understanding Charlottesville: White Nationalism and American Society - Past, Present and Future

September 2017 

A campus conversation on what happened in Charlottesville, the conditions that gave rise to it, and the challenges for our communities in its wake. With Jelani Cobb, Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and The New Yorker writer; Suzanne Goldberg (moderator), Executive Vice President for University Life and Herbert and Doris Wechsler Clinical Professor of Law; Fred Harris, Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science; Jeremy Kessler, Associate Professor of Law; Stephanie McCurry, R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of "Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South;" Van Tran, Assistant Professor of Sociology.

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Free Speech in our Community
Free Speech in our Community

A discussion about addressing and debating controversial ideas while co-existing in a shared university community, with Professor of Philosophy Akeel Bilgrami, Associate Professor of Sociology Shamus Khan and Professor of Journalism Alisa Solomon. Executive Vice President for University Life and Herbert and Doris Wechsler Clinical Professor of Law Suzanne Goldberg moderated.

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