A series of events about free speech and hate speech will take place at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in October, hosted by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. A town hall meeting and workshops for students, faculty and staff will address the campus community’s thoughts, questions and concerns about free speech and hate speech across higher education and at UAB. The events are part of ODEI's Critical Conversations series.
The town hall will take place Monday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m. in Heritage Hall Room 102. David Hudson, Jr., First Amendment specialist and renowned author and speaker, will serve as moderator. Following the town-hall, the university will host workshops led by Drs. Lara H. Schwartz and Andrea Brenner on October 16 and 17 – two workshops for students and one for faculty and staff.
The student workshops will engage participants in considering solutions to problems that might arise in their college community and help them brainstorm and evaluate campus policies regarding free speech, hate speech, and expression, and learn about avenues for civic engagement on and off campus beyond traditional protest.
The faculty and staff workshop will focus on concerns regarding issues of free speech, hate speech and expression they may have experienced inside and outside of the classroom. Techniques for de-escalation, civil discussion, maintaining neutrality, tying civil discourse to course learning objectives or program goals, and maintaining authenticity while keeping personal opinions and political orientation separate from assessment and outcomes.
UAB and First Amendment Rights: A Community Town Hall
October 14, 2019, at 6:00pm
Location: Heritage Hall 102
Register here
Free Speech and Hate Speech Student Workshop
October 16, 2019, at 5 pm
Location: Hill Student Center, Room 203
Register here
Free Speech and Hate Speech Activism Workshop
October 17, 2019, at 12-1:30 pm
Location: Hill Student Center, Room 203
Register here
Free Speech In and Outside the Classroom: Faculty and Staff Lunch and Learn
October 16, 2019, at 12-1:30 pm
Location: Finley Conference Center
About the facilitators and trainers:
David L. Hudson, Jr., an Assistant Professor of Law, teaches Legal Information and Communication at Belmont. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of more than 40 books. For much of his career, he has worked on First Amendment issues. He serves as a Justice Robert H. Jackson Legal Fellow for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and a First Amendment Fellow for the Freedom Forum Institute. For 17 years, he was an attorney and scholar at the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Hudson has taught classes at Vanderbilt Law School and the Nashville School of Law. In June 2018, the Nashville School of Law awarded him its Distinguished Faculty Award. He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School. Professor Hudson's published works have been cited and relied upon by other scholars and courts.
Lara Schwartz teaches at American University School of Public Affairs, where she founded and directs the Project on Civil Discourse. She specializes in civil discourse and campus speech, constitutional law, civil rights, politics, communications, and policy. She has served as a Faculty Fellow at AU’s Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning. Lara is a UC Free Speech Fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. She is co-author, with Andrea Brenner, of “How to College: What to Know Before You Go (And When You’re There),” a practical guide for students. She earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard law School and holds an AB in English and American Literature from Brown University.
Andrea Malkin Brenner, PhD, is a sociologist and creator and director of the nationally-recognized American University Experience (AUx) Program, now a mandatory full-year graded course that serves as both a college transition course and a cross-cultural communication class focused on race, inclusion, and discourse across difference. Andrea is a UC Free Speech Fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Dr. Brenner holds a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University and an MA in Curriculum, Instruction and Administration in Higher Education from Boston College. She received her PhD in Sociology from American University, where her research focused on the complexities of white professors teaching about race and racism to students of color.