Events
On November 14, 2024, at 7 pm at Wong Auditorium at MIT, HAFFS will co-sponsor the MIT Free Speech Alliance and MIT Open Discourse Society’s debate on the topic, RESOLVED: The total cost of net-zero decarbonization required to achieve the Paris Climate Accord goals is well worth the projected benefits delivered by the predicted reduction in global temperatures. This event is free to all interested parties.
Follow the MFSA website for more information.
On October 17-18, 2024, HAFFS Advisory Board member Nadine Strossen will join other prominent speakers at the Global Free Speech Summit, organized by The Future of Free Speech and Vanderbilt University. The speakers will discuss the most pressing challenges threatening freedom of expression worldwide and identify impactful solutions to reinvigorate this fundamental right. The event will take place on Vanderbilt’s campus and will also be streamed online.
More information on the summit and its speakers is available.
RSVP is already possible.
On October 17, 2024, from 12:20 pm to 1:15 pm Eastern, the Steamboat Institute, in partnership with the Harvard Federalist Society and Harvard Alumni for Free Speech, will present a compelling debate on the topic: Be it resolved, Harvard supports free speech and intellectual diversity. For the affirmative is Professor Randall Kennedy of the Harvard Law School. Arguing the negative is Professor Jonathan Turley of the George Washington University Law School. The moderator is Amber Duke, Washington Editor at The Spectator; Co-host of Rising at The Hill TV; and Tony Blankley Fellow, Steamboat Institute. The debate will be held at the Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Floor 2, at 1515 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge.
If you are a member of the Harvard Club of Boston, HAFFS is sponsoring an October 15, 2024 presentation by Professor Kit Parker of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. Professor Parker will discuss Harvard’s free speech environment. Contact the club for further details.
An Online Conversation with President Garber
On September 12, 2024, from noon to 1 pm Eastern, join fellow alumni to hear President Alan M. Garber share his vision for Harvard’s future, provide insight into the University’s priorities, and report on progress on campus. President Garber will be joined by Harvard Overseer Sylvia M. Burwell. Click here for more information and to register for this webinar. Participants may submit questions via the registration form – we suggest HAFFS members inquire about free speech issues of personal concern.
Under the auspices of the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), HAFFS Advisory Board member Nadine Strossen held a discussion on July 8, 2024 with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya about “Murthy v. Missouri” and other recent First Amendment Supreme Court cases, what they mean for future government censorship of “misinformation,” and the implications for patient informed consent when dissenting perspectives and opinions from healthcare professionals do not align with government messaging. One of the plaintiffs in Murthy, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine at Stanford University. In his lawsuit, Dr. Bhattacharya alleged that the Biden administration illegally colluded with social media companies to suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content. FAIR Executive Director Monica Harris moderated this eye-opening conversation about the massive government censorship program in place during Covid to promote the government’s narrative, at the expense of academic freedom and scientific truth-seeking.
On Monday, June 24, 2024, HAFFS member Jordi Calvet-Bademunt will present a symposium in Washington D.C. organized by The Future of Free Speech at Vanderbilt University and the Center for Democracy and Technology. The symposium will bring together leading voices from civil society, U.S. institutions, and the private sector. Panels will focus on proposed AI regulations in the context of the First Amendment and other free speech protections. The participants will discuss how freedom of expression principles in the U.S. and abroad should apply to generative AI and explore ways to create a resilient free-speech culture.
Learn more and register.
On June 12, 2024, HAFFS Advisory Board member Nadine Strossen joined with Harvard alum Ty Cobb to discuss “Academic Freedom, Open Dialogue, and Institutional Neutrality” for the Harvard Alumni Association.
Click here to download the recorded program.
May 8, 2024: HAFFS has arranged with the Harvard Club of Boston for HAFFS Advisory Board member Professor Ned Hall, Co-President of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, and the Norman E. Vuilleumier Professor of Philosophy, to address the question, “How – if at all – should colleges and universities regulate speech within their communities?” Open to all HCB members, from 7:30 am to 9:30 am.
April 17, 2024: HAFFS to co-sponsor MIT’s Spring 2024 Great Debate
HAFFS is honored to help our Advisory Board member
Nadine Strossen and our friends at the MIT Free Speech Alliance promote their April 17, 2024, Great Debate at MIT on the topic, “Is Sex Binary?” We believe that controversial issues should not be censored, but should be discussed intelligently based on facts, not emotion. With Nadine acting as debate moderator, this MIT Great Debate will be a model for civil and dispassionate discussion.
HAFFS Scholarship for 2024 Hoover Institution Summer Policy Boot Camp
HAFFS is once again offering $1,000.00 travel scholarships to the first two Harvard students accepted into the 2024 Hoover Institute’s Summer Policy Boot Camp.
Visit the Summer Policy Boot Camp for more information.
To apply for the HAFFS scholarship, please contact HAFFS after your acceptance into the Hoover program.
January 16, 2024: HAFFS is co-sponsoring a zoom call with FAIR Harvard + to provide alumni the opportunity to discuss free speech and other issues with Board of Overseers candidate Sam Lessin (Harvard College 2005).
Click here for more info and to register.
HAFFS is co-promoting a webinar produced by our colleagues at Cornell Free Speech Alliance on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, at 7:30 pm, on the topic, “Campus Antisemitism Crisis: Cornell & The Ivies.” Speakers include Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson, a long-time critic of the academic trends which have led to the recent Congressional hearings on this subject. Attendance is free. For detailed info and to register for the link,
please click here.
Nadine Strossen, HAFFS Advisory Board Member and past president, the American Civil Liberties Union, discussed the line between protected political speech and hate speech at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at a panel entitled, “Free Speech, Political Speech, and Hate Speech on Campus.”
Nadine was joined by Tomiko Brown Nagin, Dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and three other noted professors.
On Dec. 12, 2023, Flynn Cratty, the Executive Director of The Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, spoke on the topic of “Intellectual Freedom at Harvard” at the Harvard Club of New York. The Council, sometimes referred to as a “breakaway republic” and including 130 faculty members, represents dozens of departments and every one of Harvard’s schools, and includes several members of the HAFFS Advisory Board. CAFH’s goal is to support free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse. (In accordance with HCNY policy, no recordings will be available.)
HAFFS co-sponsored the November 29, 2023 presentation by the Harvard Law School chapter of The Federalist Society of “A Plea for Free Speech in Boston: Remembering Frederick Douglass’s 1860 Speech.” Professor Randall Kennedy of HLS, and Prof. Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, Emerita of the New York Law School and Former President of the American Civil Liberties Union, discussed the importance of this historic event, and its continuing relevance to today’s free speech controversies.
On November 2, 2023, HAFFS co-sponsored a debate at MIT on whether or not “STEM is Systemically Racist,“ to show how controversial topics can be addressed through free speech in a respectful and professional manner.
2023-10-12: HAFFS-FIRE Webinar on Free Speech at Harvard
HAFFS and FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) presented a webinar on October 12 to examine why Harvard ranked dead last among 248 American universities in FIRE’s latest annual survey of campus free speech. A current Harvard student, a faculty member and an alumna discussed the survey results and implications with two FIRE executives.
2023-09-20: “What is Campus Free Speech For? Some Philosophical Reflections.”
2023-09-14: MIT Free Speech Alliance’s Inaugural Conference
HAFFS was proud to participate in the MIT Free Speech Alliance’s September 14, 2023, Inaugural Conference at MIT. HAFFS Advisory Board Member Sam Abrams was a speaker at the event. The conference examined issues of free speech and academic freedom from a variety of perspectives, with a Keynote Speech by famed economist Glenn. C. Loury (Ph.D. 1976).
2023-05-03 – 1:30 pm Eastern: University Open Inquiry Forum: Academic Freedom At US Universities
2023-03-15: Cornell Climate Change Debate
2022-11-04: Stanford Academic Freedom Conference
