In the article “The Chilling Impact of Censorship in Higher Education,” Saunders states: “One of the biggest concerns is that higher education is not being targeted by individual, or even coordinated, challenges to specific programs and materials. Instead, these challenges are taking the form of legislation that attempts to limit curricular content, especially related to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion, including materials and programming related in any way to LGBTQIA+ communities, or related to what is often mistakenly labeled critical race theory. … But even when these proposed bills do not pass, and so far few of them have, they likely have a chilling effect, discouraging faculty from engaging with these contested topics.”
Last year, academic librarians were asked to address how they navigate challenges to academic freedom in higher education and libraries. The full series of responses are available for download.