Heterodox Academy Explained

Heterodox Academy
Abbreviation:HxA
Founders:Jonathan Haidt, Chris C. Martin, and Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz
Leader Title:President
Leader Name:John Tomasi[1]
Leader Title2:Interim Executive Director
Leader Name2:Manon Loustaunau
Leader Name3:Jonathan Haidt[2]
Leader Title3:Chair, Board of Directors
Location:New York City, U.S.

Heterodox Academy (HxA) is a non-profit advocacy group of academics working to counteract what they see as a lack of viewpoint diversity on college campuses, especially by encouraging political diversity. The organization was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Haidt, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, and Chris C. Martin.

History

In 2011, Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, gave a talk at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in which he argued that American conservatives were underrepresented in social psychology and that this hinders research and damages the field's credibility.[3] In 2015, Haidt was contacted by Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, a Georgetown University law professor, who had given a talk to the Federalist Society discussing a similar lack of conservatives in law and similarly argued that this undermines the quality of research and teaching. Haidt was also contacted by Chris C. Martin, a sociology graduate student at Emory University, who had published a similar paper in The American Sociologist about the lack of ideological diversity in sociology.[4] [5] Haidt, Martin, and Rosenkranz formed "Heterodox Academy" to address this issue.[6] [7] [8] [9] Initial funding for the group came from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and The Achelis and Bodman Foundation.[10] The Heterodox Academy website was launched with 25 members in September 2015. A series of campus freedom of speech controversies, such as those surrounding Erika Christakis at Yale and the 2015–16 University of Missouri protests, coincided with an increase in membership.

Membership was initially open to tenured and pre-tenure professors, but has been expanded to adjunct professors, graduate students, and postdoctorals. Initially, the group had a selective membership application process which is partly intended to address imbalances toward any particular political ideology. In July 2017, the group had 800 members internationally.[11] As of February 2018, around 1,500 college professors had joined Heterodox Academy, along with a couple hundred graduate students.[12]

In 2018, Debra Mashek, a professor of psychology at Harvey Mudd College, was appointed as the executive director of Heterodox Academy, a position which she held until 2020, after which an interim executive director was appointed.[13] In 2020, the organization had around 4,000 members.[14] John Tomasi, a political philosopher at Brown University, became the first president of Heterodox Academy in 2022. As of early 2023, membership had grown to 5,000.[15]

Programs and activities

In 2016 and 2017, Heterodox Academy published an annual Heterodox Academy Guide to Colleges, a ranking based on "political conformity and orthodoxy".[16] [17] [18]

In June 2018, Heterodox Academy held an inaugural Open Mind Conference in New York City, featuring several academic guests recently involved in campus free speech issues, like Robert Zimmer, Lucía Martínez Valdivia, Allison Stanger, Alice Dreger, and Heather Heying.[19] [20]

The organization administers a "Campus Expression Survey", designed to allow professors and college administrators to survey their students' feelings about freedom of expression on campus.[21]

Ideology and reception

Heterodox Academy describes itself as non-partisan. In 2018, the group's website described its mission as encouraging political diversity to allow dissent and challenge errors.[22]

According to Voxs Zack Beauchamp, Heterodox Academy advances conservative viewpoints on college campuses by ignoring the data and arguing that such views are suppressed by left-wing bias or political correctness.[23] Commentators such as Beauchamp and Chris Quintana, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, have disputed Heterodox Academy's contention that college campuses are facing a "free-speech crisis", noting the lack of data to support it and arguing that advocacy groups such as Heterodox Academy functionally do more to narrow the scope of academic debates than any of the biases they allege.[24]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Team at Heterodox Academy . Heterodox Academy . August 21, 2023 .
  2. Web site: Board of Directors . Heterodox Academy . 28 January 2022.
  3. News: Tierney . John . John Tierney (journalist) . Social Scientist Sees Bias Within . March 9, 2019 . . February 7, 2011 . https://archive.today/20140809082112/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/science/08tier.html?_r=0 . 9 August 2014 . live .
  4. Jonathan Haidt . June 20, 2019 . 2019 HxA Open Inquiry Awards . English . January 11, 2022 . New York . Heterodox Academy.
  5. Web site: 2019-03-06. The Well-Meaning Bad Ideas Spoiling a Generation. 2022-01-28. Nautilus Science Connected. en-US.
  6. Book: Rauch, Jonathan . Jonathan Rauch . 2021 . The Constitution of Knowledge . Washington DC . Brookings Institution Press . 317 . 9780815738862.
  7. Wehner . Eric . May 24, 2020 . Jonathan Haidt Is Trying to Heal America's Divisions. The Atlantic . January 15, 2022.
  8. Web site: Heterodox Academy, Our Mission . . Heterodox Academy . January 15, 2022 . Heterodox Academy was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Haidt, Chris Martin, and Nicholas Rosenkranz, in reaction to their observations about the negative impact a lack of ideological diversity has had on the quality of research within their disciplines. .
  9. Web site: In College Classrooms, A Spreading Silence On Hot-Button Topics . . John Templeton Foundation . January 16, 2022 . Heterodox Academy was founded in 2015 by psychologist Jonathan Haidt, sociologist Chris Martin, and legal scholar Nicholas Rosenkranz because all three worried that a lack of ideological diversity within their disciplines was impacting the quality of research .
  10. News: Goldstein. Evan R.. June 11, 2017. The Gadfly: Can Jonathan Haidt Calm the Culture Wars?. The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 7, 2017. 63. 40. B6–9. subscription. March 6, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190504103213/https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Gadfly/240311. May 4, 2019. live.
  11. News: Belkin. Douglas. June 24, 2017. Colleges Pledge Tolerance for Diverse Opinions, But Skeptics Remain. The Wall Street Journal. live. subscription. March 4, 2019. https://archive.today/20170627223331/https://www.wsj.com/articles/colleges-promise-to-be-less-politically-correct-1498305600. June 27, 2017.
  12. News: Friedersdorf. Conor. Conor Friedersdorf. February 6, 2018. A New Leader in the Push for Diversity of Thought on Campus. The Atlantic. May 24, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180525063138/https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/a-new-leader-in-the-push-for-diversity-of-thought-on-campus/552275/. May 25, 2018. live.
  13. Web site: Deb Mashek, PhD . LinkedIn . 28 January 2022.
  14. News: Wehner . Peter . Peter Wehner . Jonathan Haidt Is Trying to Heal America's Divisions . . May 24, 2020 . July 27, 2020 .
  15. News: Bartlett . Tom . How Heterodox Academy Hopes to Change the Campus Conversation . . January 9, 2023 . https://archive.today/20230109122145/https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-heterodox-academy-hopes-to-change-the-campus-conversation#selection-1775.250-1775.272 . January 9, 2023 . August 21, 2023 .
  16. News: Richardson. Bradford. Harvard among least intellectually diverse universities: Report. May 24, 2018. The Washington Times. October 24, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20180525063125/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/24/harvard-among-least-intellectually-diverse-schools/. 25 May 2018. live.
  17. Web site: The Heterodox Academy Guide to Colleges: Starting A Methodological Discussion. October 27, 2016. Heterodox Academy.
  18. Web site: Heterodox Academy Releases Updated Guide to Colleges | HeterodoxAcademy.org. November 4, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171104160506/https://heterodoxacademy.org/2017/06/19/heterodox-academy-releases-updated-guide-to-colleges/. 2017-11-04.
  19. News: Rubenstein . Adam . Heterodoxy Now . 1 March 2019 . . June 22, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190302090805/https://www.weeklystandard.com/adam-rubenstein/heterodox-academy-meet-the-academics-who-are-trying-to-save-free-speech . 2 March 2019 . live .
  20. News: Bartlett . Tom . A Conference's Recipe for 'Viewpoint Diversity': More Free Play, More John Stuart Mill . 1 March 2019 . . June 21, 2018 . New York . https://web.archive.org/web/20190302090844/https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Conference-s-Recipe-for/243733 . 2 March 2019 . live .
  21. News: Mikics . David . The High Priest of Heterodoxy . . . July 21, 2019 . July 28, 2020 .
  22. News: Lerner. Maura. Nurturing a new diversity on campus: 'Diversity of thought'. May 24, 2018. Star Tribune. April 24, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180524222107/http://www.startribune.com/nurturing-a-new-diversity-on-u-campus-diversity-of-thought-to-bridge-political-differences/480416263/. May 24, 2018. live.
  23. Web site: Zack. Beauchamp. February 28, 2019. The myth of a campus free speech crisis. August 31, 2018. Vox. https://web.archive.org/web/20190301140018/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/31/17718296/campus-free-speech-political-correctness-musa-al-gharbi. 1 March 2019. live.
  24. News: Chris. Quintana. February 28, 2019. The Real Free-Speech Crisis Is Professors Being Disciplined for Liberal Views, a Scholar Finds. The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 30, 2018. 0009-5982. https://web.archive.org/web/20190301135847/https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Real-Free-Speech-Crisis-Is/243284. 1 March 2019. live.

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