Outreach, Support, and Networking
We identify, connect, and support teachers and scholars in the legal academy who use critical legal theory in their work.
We work to ensure that CRT and related theories have a place in the curricula of the top 100 US law schools by student size, allowing students, faculty, and administrators, as well as the communities they serve, to benefit from the insights of critical scholarship.
We sponsor events and programs that help law faculty use critical scholarship in their teaching and research.
We build community by connecting critical scholars and teachers with one another, both in the United States and abroad.
March 10, 2022
Support Academic Freedom in the U.S.
End the Attacks on Critical Race Theory
We the undersigned are law professors from diverse countries in Europe and beyond.
We write to express our alarm and deep concern at the attacks on academic freedom that are currently being launched in the United States under the pretense that a grossly distorted version of Critical Race Theory poses a threat of some kind to the American educational system at all levels.
We are acutely aware that similar drives to rewrite history and silence dissent are ongoing in a number of Central European countries where authoritarians hold governmental power. In France a similarly caricatural version of Critical Race Theory has been deployed to justify right wing governmental and media calls for censorship and self-censorship of speech that addresses race issues in French law and society.
We understand the situation in the United States to be complex to say the least with respect to the control of the content of educational materials. But there is no doubt that a number of state legislatures have passed or are considering statutes that forbid (without precisely defining) the teaching of CRT at one or all levels of the educational system. State universities are under pressure from the same conservative forces to monitor university teaching for fear of falling afoul of state legislatures that control their budgets.
Most alarming we read of pitched battles at the level of local school boards over the inclusion in the elementary and secondary school curricula of material that gives an historically accurate account of the role of slavery, racial discrimination and racism in the American past and their influence on the present.
In all these cases, what pass for attacks on CRT have nothing to do with the serious academic content of this school as taught in law schools and graduate social science departments and now increasingly familiar and respected outside the United States.
Whether or not we come from countries with robust traditions upholding freedom of speech against government control, we have admired the American devotion expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution to a wide interpretation of this first principle of liberal democracy.
The various kinds of state action that seem to be gathering momentum in the United States appear to us to be flatly, even flagrantly in violation of this principle. It once seemed to be an immovable aspect of American academic culture. It appears that that is no longer the case.
We particularly support efforts through the professional associations of legal, higher, secondary and primary school education to push back against these actual and threatened violations of academic freedom and also against attempts to suppress truth telling about race represented by Critical Race Theory.
Add your name here.
Helena Alviar, Ecole de droit, Sciences-po, Paris
Hugh Collins, London School of Economics
Matthew Craven, SOAS
Costas Douzinas, Birkbeck College, University of London
Guenter Frankenberg, Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Stephanie Hennette Vauchez, Université Paris Nanterre
Martijn Hesselink, European University Institute
Ratna Kapur, Queen Mary University, London
Martti Koskenniemi, University of Helsinki
Prabha Kotiswaran, King’s College, London
Nicola Lacey, London School of Economics
Maria Rosaria Marella, University of Perugia
Susan Marks, London School of Economics
Mathias Möschel, Central European University
Horatia Muir Watt, Ecole de droit, Sciences-po
Akbar Rasulov, University of Glasgow
Mikhail Xifaras, Ecole de droit, Sciences-po, Paris
Lionel Zevounou, Universite Paris Nanterre
Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School emeritus
Ozan Kamiloglu, London South Bank University
Alexis Alvarez-Nakagawa, Queen Mary, University of London
Bill Bowring, Birkbeck College, University of London
Bernard Keenan, Birkbeck College, University of London
Christine Schwöbel-Patel, University of Warwick
Alain Pottage, Law School, Sciences Po
Adam Gearey, Birkbeck College
Virginia Mantouvalou, University College London (UCL)
Thomas Skouteris, The American University in Cairo
David Nelken, King's College London
George Pavlakos, University of Glasgow
Nesrine Badawi, The American University in Cairo
Fiona Macmillan, Birkbeck, University of London
Michele Spanò, École des hautes études en sciences sociales | EHESS - Paris
Giovanni MARINI, University of Perugia
Jason Beckett, American University in Cairo
Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, Birkbeck College, University of London
Eddie Bruce-Jones, Birkbeck College, University of London
Paolo Napoli, Ecole des hautes e'tudes en sciences sociales
Przemyslaw Tacik, Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Antonio Negri, Independent scholar
Professor Alex Sharpe, University of Warwick
Michelle Everson, Birkbeck College, University of London
A Lionel Zevounou
Giorgio Resta, University Roma Tre
Enrica Rigo, University of Roma Tre
Dr. Ceylan Begum Yildiz, King's College London
Gian Giacomo Fusco, Kent Law School (University of Kent)
Luca Nivarra, University of Palermo
Antonios Tzanakopoulos, University of Oxford
Maurizio Di Masi, University of Perugia
Cengiz Barskanmaz, Free University Berlin
Iyiola Solanke, University of Leeds
Panos Kapotas, University of Portsmouth
Amir Paz-Fuchs, University of Sussex
Valentina Calderai, University of Pisa
James Greenwood-Reeves, University of Sussex
Colm O'Cinneide, University College London (UCL)
Natalia Rueda, Externado University, Colombia
[English version]
INTERNATIONAL LETTER ON CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT)
We are Academics, Students, Writers, Lawyers, Judges, and Civil Society Actors in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas
We write to express our alarm and deep concern at the attacks against Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the United States. We view these attacks as a fundamental assault on the university and academic freedom. They endanger the right to education and the space for dissent.
The principle of academic freedom is integral to the university and academic culture. This has compounded our alarm at recent developments and deepened our solidarity with those in US- academia who have fought against the attacks on CRT. With dismay and disbelief, we have followed how a number of state legislatures have passed or are considering statutes that forbid the teaching of CRT and challenged curricula that address the histories of enslavement, racial discrimination and White Supremacy, and their legacies today. In our view one of the central contributions of academic freedom is to allow scholars to research, discuss and teach about the histories of racial oppression and the struggles for racial justice and equity. This has in turn been critical to ongoing struggles against oppression and injustice.
We believe the attacks on CRT reflect a wider global assault on the university, on students and scholars of color, and on the scholarship and pedagogies that challenge dominant narratives of structural inequality. Such attacks are commonplace in places as diverse as the United Kingdom, France, India, Hungary, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and many others. These governments have silenced voices that have challenged political, social, and economic hegemonies; they have sponsored efforts to rewrite history to advance the interests of dominant groups; they have institutionalized censorship and persecuted student movements challenging racial, ethnic, religious and cultural hegemonies. Moreover, in many parts of the world these attacks have come in the wake of decades of austerity programs that have already weakened universities and students’ access to higher education.
We are writing to request that you join us in advocacy efforts in solidarity with students and scholars fighting these assaults on academic freedom, be they attacks on CRT in the USA or related attacks in other parts of the world. In particular, we hope that you mobilize your faculties to become more active in the public space in the academy, the media, and other public fora to push back and engage governments, professional associations, policymakers, and civil societies in defense of academic freedom.
To sign, click here
---
[Spanish version]
CARTA INTERNACIONAL SOBRE TEORÍA CRÍTICA DE LA RAZA (CRT)
Somos académicos/as, estudiantes, escritores/as, abogados/as, jueces/zas y actores de la sociedad civil de África, Asia, Europa y las Américas
Escribimos para expresar nuestra alarma y profunda preocupación por los ataques contra la Teoría Crítica de la Raza (CRT) en los Estados Unidos. Consideramos estos ataques como un asalto fundamental a la universidad y libertad académica. Ponen en peligro el derecho a la educación y el espacio para la disidencia.
El principio de libertad académica es parte integral de la cultura académica y universitaria. Esto ha agravado nuestra alarma ante los recientes acontecimientos y ha profundizado nuestra solidaridad con aquellos que en el mundo académico estadounidense han luchado contra los ataques a la CRT. Con consternación e incredulidad, hemos visto cómo varias legislaturas estaduales han aprobado o están considerando aprobar leyes que prohíban la enseñanza de la CRT y cuestionen los planes de estudio que abordan las historias de la esclavitud, la discriminación racial y la supremacía blanca, y sus legados en la actualidad. En nuestra opinión, una de las principales contribuciones de la libertad académica es permitir que las y los académicos investiguen, discutan y enseñen sobre las historias de la opresión racial y las luchas por la equidad y justicia racial. Esto, a su vez, ha sido fundamental para las luchas actuales contra la opresión y la injusticia.
Creemos que los ataques en contra de la CRT reflejan un ataque global más amplio a las universidades, estudiantes y académicos/as de color, y a los estudios y pedagogías que desafían las narrativas dominantes de desigualdad estructural. Estos ataques son habituales en lugares tan diversos como el Reino Unido, Francia, India, Hungría, Israel, Arabia Saudita, Brasil y muchos otros. Esos gobiernos han silenciado las voces que han desafiado las hegemonías políticas, sociales y económicas; han patrocinado esfuerzos por reescribir la historia para promover los intereses de los grupos dominantes; han institucionalizado la censura y perseguido a los movimientos estudiantiles que desafían las hegemonías raciales, étnicas, religiosas y culturales. Además, en muchas partes del mundo estos ataques se han producido tras décadas de programas de austeridad que ya han debilitado a las universidades y el acceso de los estudiantes a la educación superior.
Les escribimos para pedirles que se unan a nuestros esfuerzos de defensa en solidaridad con las y los estudiantes y académicos/as que luchan contra esos ataques a la libertad académica, ya sean ataques a CRT en los Estados Unidos o ataques similares en otras partes del mundo. En concreto, esperamos que movilicen a sus facultades para que sean más activas en el espacio público de la academia, los medios de comunicación y otros foros públicos para hacer frente y comprometer a los gobiernos, asociaciones de profesionales, encargados/as de políticas públicas y sociedades civiles en defensa de la libertad académica.
Firmar: clique aqui
Amar Bhatia, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
John Reynolds, School of Law & Criminology, Maynooth University, Ireland
Mohammad Shahabuddin, Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham
James Thuo Gathii, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Usha Natarajan
Cengiz Barskanmaz, Fulda University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
Obiora Okafor, Johns Hopkins University
Helena Alviar, Sciences Po
Michael Fakhri, University of Oregon School of Law
Nahed Samour, Humboldt University Berlin
Julia Dehm, La Trobe University, Australia
Luis Eslava, Kent Law School, University of Kent