Originally published in The EDU Ledger on May 26, 2026.
Calls for academics to conduct more public scholarship have been ongoing for years, and have only gained momentum as universities seek to demonstrate the utility of academic research to society writ large. But the rise of authoritarian tendencies at the state and federal levels is exposing scholars to serious consequences for sharing or even conducting their work, from a professor arrested for engaging in scholarly activities to a graduate student sent to an immigration detention center for writing an op-ed.
Despite historically fierce protections of free speech afforded, the rise of such government policies and practices is silencing academics across fields, from the humanities to the social sciences to the hard sciences. This silencing tends to mainly impact academics who hold marginalized racial, ethnic, or gender identities, or who are part of marginalized groups because of their sexual orientation or immigration status.