She applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters, and shared the following:
Page 99 talks about how attacks on universities and scholars are related to a wider set of attacks on journalists, librarians, writers, political activists and public intellectuals – in fact anyone who challenges repressive political power. This wider set of attacks by antidemocratic regimes, including the MAGA Republican regime, may take various forms. In places such as Brazil, Hungary or India, they can range from censoring what gets published, to closing news outlets, to arrests, detentions, and in some cases even torture, rape and death.Learn more about Policing Higher Education at the Johns Hopkins University Press website.
The Page 99 Test is pretty effective in conveying the overarching point of my book, which is that attacks on academic freedom are one strategy exercised by antidemocratic politicians to expel any criticism challenging their authority to govern. We see attacks on academic freedom increasingly under Trump’s second administration as students and scholars are policed and criminalized for public protest, as well as shuttled into cars and relocated to distant detention centers. And we see it in the widespread defunding of science and research that seeks to make universities and colleges bend to the far-right’s ideological agenda. These efforts have a chilling effect on learning. In a very material sense, people are being disciplined to self-censor and not speak up, afraid of real and imminent threats. This is what the far-right wants – to create an environment in which people are scared to think in ways that may question those in power.
Unfortunately, this isn’t just a US problem. My book looks at two interconnected global trends – rising antidemocracy and declining academic freedom. I argue that what is happening in the US needs to be understood as part of a global drift toward authoritarianism that includes aggressive control over knowledge production.
With this book, I hope to open conversations about the value of academic freedom and higher education in general. Despite US education being very expensive and historically exclusive, going to college is vital for training people to question their assumptions and think critically about their place in the world. And importantly, academic freedom is central to revisioning more inclusive democratic societies that respect diverse worldviews and encourage innovative ideas that drive new jobs and solutions.
Being able to think, study, discuss and share knowledge without fear of censorship is essential for everyone, irrespective of age, gender, sex, religion, class, race or ethnicity. This is an urgent and timely message as we face a new era of unparalleled political repression.
The Page 99 Test: Global Burning.
--Marshal Zeringue
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