First Amendment Law Review Symposium: The Quintessential Marketplace of Ideas? Current Free Speech Issues on University Campuses

Date/Time
Date(s) - 11/15/2024
8:45 am - 4:00 pm

On November 15, 2024, the Center for Media Law and Policy will be joining with the First Amendment Law Review to present a symposium on “The Quintessential Marketplace of Ideas?: Current Free Speech Issues on University Campuses.”

In the past year, student protests over the war in Gaza have spread across the country, raising difficult questions about not only how university administrators should respond but also what role, if any, protests should play in the life of a university. At the same time, UNC and other universities have embraced the concept of “institutional neutrality” for the first time since it was proposed in the 1967 Kalven Report; students and professors alike complain that they are “canceled” for expressing unpopular viewpoints in the place traditionally known as the marketplace of ideas; and federal and state lawmakers take aim at elitist universities.

Join us Friday, November 15, 2024, at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill as we dive into this topic, dissecting contemporary challenges the First Amendment faces at America’s institutions of higher education. We are excited to host several leading First Amendment academics and practitioners, including Professor Geoff Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, who will deliver the keynote address.

• Geoff Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School

• Vikram Amar, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Davis School of Law
• Steven Collis, Clinical Professor, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
• Timothy Zick, Robert & Elizabeth Scott Research Professor and John Marshall Professor of Government and Citizenship, William & Mary Law School

• Amy Gajda, Jeffrey D. Forchelli Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
• Tyson Langhofer, Senior Counsel and Director of Center for Academic Freedom, Alliance Defending Freedom
• David Rabban, Dahr Jamail, Randall Hage Jamail, and Robert Lee Jamail Regents Chair in Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

• Christopher Alan Bracey, Provost and Professor of Law, George Washington University
• Peter Hans, President, The University of North Carolina System
• Geoff Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School
• Keith Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton University

This event is free and open to the public.