APA
Committee for the Defense
of
the Professional Rights of Philosophers
Charge
to the Committee
History of the Committee
The Committee
advises members of the profession more often than it intervenes formally.
Members often seek advice about how to proceed with a complaint--whether
to hire an attorney, to use campus grievance procedures, or to ask for
intervention by the AAUP or by the Committee. Issues the Committee addresses
include several variants of the following general problems:
- hidden
criteria for philosophy positions (i.e., job ad fails to state significant
qualifications)
- discrimination
in hiring or promoting
- disputes
arising over oral offers of employment
- free speech
(in the classroom, at conferences, and citizen-speech)
- contract
non-renewal
- tenure
denial
- cancellation
of contracted funding
- wrongful
discipline or termination (e.g., some post-tenure review procedures)
- difficulties
encountered by non-citizen philosophers in the U.S.
- intradepartmental
disputes
- disputes
involving journals and publishers
- the interface
between philosophers and governance structures (e.g., Institutional
Review Boards, curriculum committees, intramural funding bodies)
Click below
for links to information about these issues and others.
Committee
News
- On
behalf of the APA Committee on the Defense of Professional Rights, we
are happy to report that the academic freedom case of one of our colleagues
has been successfully resolved. We congratulate the university involved
for its willingness to establish an Academic Freedom Review Committee
to deal with such cases in the future, when and if they should occur.
Editor's Note: The APA extends its thanks and compliments to Martin
Benjamin, Chair of the Committee on the Defense of Professional Rights,
for his fine work on this case.
-
Threats to Academic Freedom: Information, Advice, and Links
- Central
Session 2005:
IV-M.
Joint Session Sponsored by Committee on the Status of Women, the Committee
for Defense of the Professional Rights of Philosophers, and the Committee
on Inclusiveness: Strategies for Responding to Gender-Based Inequities
and Concerns about Feminist Philosophy
9:00 a.m.-Noon, Parlor B (Sixth Floor)
Chair: Rosemarie Tong (University of North Carolina–Charlotte)
Speakers: Sharon Crasnow (Riverside Community College–Norco)
“The Feminist Question in Philosophy”
Eva Feder Kittay (State University of New York–Stony Brook)
“A Philosophy of One’s Own”
Debra Nails (Michigan State University)
“Fair Tenure Decisions: The Nature of the Problem”
Anita Superson (University of Kentucky)
“Changing the Climate”
Jane Kneller (Colorado State University)
“Flourishing in a Harsh Climate: Feminism As a Hardy Perennial”
Nancy Tuana (Pennsylvania State University)
“Putting the Status Quo in Historical Perspective”
Committee
Reports to the APA Board
* Reports
are typically submitted in August for approval by the Board at its November
meeting and are published in the May issue of the Proceedings and Addresses
the following spring. The 2002 report, therefore covers committee activities
during the fiscal year July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002, and was published
in the May 2003 Proceedings and Addresses.
Statements (APA Board-Approved)
Survey
Data and Reports
Committee
Resources
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