The freedoms to research, debate, teach, and learn are central to democracy and to the human rights project. Pozen Center faculty and staff have compiled the below resources – many of which foreground the human rights perspective – for use by anyone navigating the current threats to higher education.
Pozen Report
In recent years, human rights discourse has paid increasing attention to academic freedom. In 2025, the Pozen Center released a report summarizing this discourse for a general readership.
Trackers / Blogs
- Academic Freedom Monitoring Project: a database tracking attacks on higher education worldwide, maintained by Scholars at Risk. SAR's annual "Freedom to Think" reports provide a useful overview of the global state of academic freedom.
- "Academic Freedom on the Line": a newsletter focused on political interference in higher education, written by fellows at the Center for the Defense of Academic Fredom, a program of the American Association of University Professors.
- Chronicle of Higher Education anti-DEI legislation tracker: follow the status of legislation prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
- Inside Higher Ed legislation tracker: a database of higher-ed related bills proposed by the current congress.
Reports and Articles
- "The Right to Academic Freedom": 2024 report in which United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Farida Shaheed surveys the state of academic freedom worldwide and argues that it is best thought of as a human right derived from the universal right to education.
- "Principles for Implementing the Right to Academic Freedom": 2024 recommendations issued by the UN Working Group on Academic Freedom.
- Balakrishnan Rajagopal – "Academic Freedom as a Human Right: An Internationalist Perspective": a prescient 2003 article in which the current UN Special Rapporteur for the Right to Housing made the case for a human rights approach to academic freedom in the post-9/11 context.
- Renata Uitz – "Academic Freedom as a Human Right? Facing Up to the Illiberal Challenge": a 2020 article by the legal scholar Renata Uitz linking academic freedom, human rights discourse, and the challenges facing constitutional democracy.
- "Academic Freedom and Democratic Backsliding": 2023 article by legal scholar and Pozen Center faculty board member Tom Ginsburg surveying local and international legal mechanisms relevant to the defense of academic freedom.
- "Academic Freedom and the Freedom of Opinion and Expression": 2020 report in which United Nations Special Rapporteur David Kaye articulates the relationship between academic freedom and the freedom of expression.
Upcoming Events
- Scholars at Risk 2025 United States General Assembly: October 8-10 at New York University
Other Resources
- Faculty First Responders; a mutual aid organization focused on direct action to defend and expand academic freedom. Offers webinars, workshops, and peer-to-peer counseling and advice for acaddemics under threat.