The First Amendment and the University Seminar

3 units

Drop deadline: 5:00p.m. after the first class meeting. The modern university has long faced political, ideological, and cultural pressures on its mission, purpose, and identity. In recent years, these pressures have intensified through debates over the boundaries of protest, diversity, civil discourse, and tolerance. These debates, in turn, implicate longstanding issues at the core of First Amendment theory and doctrine that reflect not only tensions within the university but those arising from the political, legal, and cultural frameworks in our larger society. What are the boundaries of disagreement? What are the acceptable modes of discourse? What should the university be amidst these debates, and are these aspirations even attainable? This 3.0 credit seminar explores these questions through close engagement with scholarship across a variety of disciplines including works by Alasdair MacIntyre, Evan Mandery, Mary-Rose Papandrea, Robert Post, Stanley Hauerwas, and others. Grading will be based on three papers and class participation.