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Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

There’s an intensifying kind of threat to academic freedom – watchful students serving as informants

Approximately 58% of faculty interviewed in a national survey in 2024 reported self-censoring. PM Images/iStock/Getty Images

Texas A&M University told philosophy professor Martin Peterson in early January 2026 that he could not teach some of Greek philosopher Plato’s writings that touch on “race and gender ideology.”

The university’s local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, an organization of professors and academics in the U.S., quickly denounced this requirement.

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