A Conversation About Academic Freedom

Featured Speakers

Amna Khalid

Associate Professor, History, Carleton College

Professor Khalid specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression. Growing up under a series of military dictatorships in Pakistan, Khalid has a strong interest in issues relating to free expression. She hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called “Banished,” which explores censorship controversies in the past and present.

Jeff Snyder

Associate Professor, Educational Studies, Carleton College

Professor Snyder is a historian of education, whose work examines questions about race, national identity and the purpose of public education in a diverse, democratic society. Snyder is the author of the book, Making Black History: The Color Line, Culture and Race in the Age of Jim Crow.

Mark Berkson

Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Hamline University

Professor Berkson teaches courses in Asian religions (including the Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Hindu traditions), Islam, and comparative religion. Mark received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in religious studies, his M.A. from Stanford University in East Asian Studies, and his B.A. from Princeton University.

Mark’s scholarly work has addressed topics such as Confucian and Daoist thought, death and dying, religion and non-human animals, and interfaith dialogue. His work has been published in numerous books and journals including the essay “Teaching Religion and Upholding Academic Freedom” in a special issue of the Journal of Religious Ethics. He has released two lecture series with the Great Courses: Cultural Literacy for Religion and Death, Dying and the Afterlife: Lessons from World Cultures.

Stacy Hawkins

Professor of Law and former Vice Dean, Rutgers Law School

Professor Hawkins is an award-winning teacher and scholar who teaches courses in Constitutional Law, Employment Law and an original seminar on Diversity and the Law. She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2023 Chancellor’s Award for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Leadership, the 2022 BLSA Champion for Social Justice Award, and the 2018 AALS Derrick A. Bell Award, which is given to those junior faculty who exemplify a commitment to diversity and critical race theory in their teaching, scholarship and service. She was also named Faculty of the Year by the graduating class of 2013 and Co-Professor of the Year by the graduating class of 2018.

Professor Hawkins’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of law and diversity and can be found in journals published by the University of Michigan Law School, Fordham Law School, UCLA School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the University of Maryland School of Law, and Columbia Law School, among others. She is a recognized expert on employment law and diversity, has given testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and has been interviewed or quoted in various news outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, NBC, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, Bloomberg News, The Courier Post, and Philadelphia Magazine.

In addition to law teaching, Professor Hawkins has spent more than two decades advising and training clients in both the public and private sector on issues of workplace diversity. She has held or holds a number of professional and civic appointments, including as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement, as an advisory board member of the Public Interest Law Center, and as an inaugural member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Diversity Team.

Professor Hawkins earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned various honors including the title of national champion of the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition.

Nadine Strossen

John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; past president of the American Civil Liberties Union

Professor Strossen is a senior fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education) and a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.

The National Law Journal has named Professor Strossen one of America’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers,” and several other publications have named her one of the country’s most influential women. Her many honorary degrees and awards include the American Bar Association’s prestigious Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017). In 2023, the National Coalition Against Censorship (an alliance of more than 50 national non-profit organizations) selected Professor Strossen for its Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech.

When Professor Strossen stepped down as ACLU President, three (ideologically diverse) Supreme Court Justices participated in her farewell/tribute luncheon: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and David Souter.

She is the author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know (2023). She is also the Host and Project Consultant for Free to Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series on free speech release on public television in fall 2023.

Her book Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights was named a New York Times “notable book” of 1995, and will be republished in 2024 as part of the New York University Press “Classic” series. Her book HATE was selected as the “Common Read” by Washington University and Washburn University.

Professor Strossen has made thousands of public presentations before diverse audiences around the world, including on more than 500 different campuses and in many foreign countries, and she has appeared on virtually every national TV news program. Her hundreds of publications have appeared in many scholarly and general interest publications.

Professor Strossen graduated phi beta kappa from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced law in Minneapolis (her hometown) and New York City. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Anthony Sanders

Director and senior attorney, Center for Judicial Engagement at the Institute for Justice

Anthony Sanders joined the Institute for Justice in 2010. He educates the public about the proper role of judges in enforcing constitutional limits on the size and scope of government through various means, including live events, books, articles, and podcasts.

Anthony’s expertise is on using state constitutions to protect individual rights. He is the author of the book, published by University of Michigan Press, Baby Ninth Amendments: How Americans Embraced Unenumerated Rights and Why It Matters. He has also written several law review articles on state constitutional law, unenumerated rights, judicial review, economic liberty, property rights, international law, and other subjects. His work has appeared in publications such as the Iowa Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, American University Law Review, and Rutgers Law Review. He has published opinion pieces in leading newspapers across the country and has been a contributor to various journals including The Unpopulist, the Brennan Center’s State Court Report, Discourse Magazine, and Arc Digital. He frequently speaks to various audiences on these matters and others, including judicial engagement, free speech, civil forfeiture, and the continuing importance of Magna Carta. Additionally, he hosts the weekly Short Circuit podcast which often records live in front of law student audiences.

Anthony has litigated several cases concerning state constitutional protections in various state courts, as well as in federal courts on matters such as economic liberty, free speech, administrative law, and fines and fees abuse. Prior to joining the Institute for Justice, Anthony served as a law clerk to Justice W. William Leaphart on the Montana Supreme Court. Anthony also worked for several years in private practice in Chicago where he was an active member of the Chicago Bar Association and chaired its Civil Rights Committee.

Anthony received his law degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2004, his undergraduate degree from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a member of the Federalist Society, the Selden Society, the American Society for Legal History, and the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society.