HKS Professors Discuss Academic Freedom, Issues Facing Black Americans at IOP

Three Harvard Kennedy School professors discussed issues affecting Black Americans and attacks on academic freedom at an Institute of Politics forum on Thursday.

The event — moderated by IOP Director Setti D. Warren — featured HKS professors Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Sandra S. Smith, and Cornell Williams Brooks, who previously served as president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Muhammad — who teaches an HKS course on race that came under scrutiny during then-President Claudine Gay’s tumultuous congressional hearing — said the University has “yet to dispel the myths” touted by critics of Harvard and called on the school to “do better” on behalf of students and faculty.

“That problem of fear and alienation isn’t just at the student level — faculty can’t be their full selves for students if they themselves feel unsupported and unprotected,” Muhammad said.

University spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the event, Muhammad also discussed pushback against the Black Lives Matter movement and increasing rates of book bans, which he called an “absolute erasure of truth and education in this country.”

“We look like we have the underpinnings of textbook fascism — not make-believe, not excessive rhetoric,” he said.

Muhammad noted that officials in Florida recently banned sociology from public college general education curriculums, saying they did so because they believed the field had been “hijacked by left-wing radicals.”

Brooks discussed a recent visit he made to a Florida university to deliver a speech on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He said the school affiliates he met were “afraid” of Florida’s recent attempts to change the academic curriculum at these schools.

“Talking to professors who were afraid to teach, talking to administrators who were afraid to lead, and everyone afraid to be in a place that ostensibly values education and open and critical thinking — that was like walking into a nightmare,” Brooks said.

Though the panelists acknowledged the challenges facing Black Americans today, they stressed the importance of optimism.

“Self-censorship and fear are the oxygen that allows this illiberal movement to win,” Muhammed said.

Brooks said that successful activism to boost voter turnout “speaks to our ability to be optimistic as a consequence of our confidence in ourselves.”

“In the teeth of vicious voter suppression, we have seen a corresponding degree of brilliance on the part of activists, on the part of lawyers,” Brooks said.

Smith said she was inspired by efforts led by people of color “taking control of their situation and creating solutions for themselves.”

Smith added that grassroots engagement from community members “strengthens democracy.”

“These are people who otherwise would have been marginalized — now they feel like they have a stake in it,” Smith said.

“They’re empowered to make a difference, and they do it together,” she added.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.