When Academic Freedom Goes Against Political (In)correctness

FORMAT | Presented paper

LANGUAGE | English

HOW TO CITE| SANDU, Antonio (2020). When Academic Freedom Goes Against Political (In)correctness. Prezentat în cadrul 7th Central & Eastern European LUMEN International Conference New Approaches in Social and Humanistic Sciences | CEE NASHS 7th edition | 25-26 June 2020 | Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.

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ABSTRACT:

The paper starts from a critical analysis of a proposal to amend the Romanian National Education Law, which prohibits in any educational institution – including universities – the exposure in any form of gender identity theory which states that gender identity does not absolutely coincide with the sex with which the individual was born. We believe that such a ban limits academic freedom, the freedom of expression, the university autonomy, introduces the premises for censorship of research, making very difficult and practically prohibiting gender studies. This is, in our opinion, intolerable, as long as politics intervenes in the choice of research topics and censors the presentation of scientific theories, even if they are rejected by the majority of the population and possibly by the entire scientific community.
Instead of censoring politically undesirable theories, the epistemological distancing of the researcher from the expressed theories should be supported as well as the expression of the methodological reservation regarding a possible subsequent invalidation of the theory. From ethical point of view, the delimitation of academic freedom opens the way for discretionary manifestation in education and research and for discrimination on the basis of political opinion or even on the basis of gender criteria or gender orientation.

KEYWORDS:

academic freedom; political correctness; freedom of expression; gender identity.