Academic freedom begins at home

Abstract

Devine explores the changing structure of academic work and workforce and its ultimate implications on academic freedom. Devine argues that women and members of minority groups are disadvantaged with regard to exercising their rights to academic freedom in higher education. Such silencing is further supported by the neoliberalisation of academic work and university practices. She titles her essay, 'Academic freedom begins at home,' because it is all too easy, she argues, to get indignant about incursions into the bailiwick of grand statements enunciated by public intellectuals, and to forget about the myriad ways in which the academic freedom for many academics is curtailed daily in small acts of aggression and incomprehension. Kant, she concludes, is our forefather, but we need to develop the maturity to see past him.