Banished

Articles

Whatever happened to freedom of association?

Mar 8, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

The Trump administration is trying its darndest to decimate DEI. One of the many problems with the federal government’s anti-DEI crusade is that Trump and co. will categorize pretty much anything they don’t like as DEI, even if the connections are more imagined than real. Take campus affinity groups and houses, which have been around for much longer than DEI (as a concept or acronym). Nonetheless, these particular groups and houses have become key targets for the anti-DEI brigade.
Supercharged since October 7

Feb 17, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -22:44Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Ken Stern (Director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate) joins Amna and Jeff to discuss these urgent questions: Are campuses hotbeds of antisemitism? How do we define antisemitism in the first place? Is there a difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism? How have colleges handled the student protests around Gaza? Why are so many higher education institutions facing Title VI lawsuits?
Who Speaks the Language of Social Justice?

Feb 8, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -17:32Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Our friend and colleague Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi has a new book out. And it’s a tour-de-force. We Have Never Been Wokeis essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the economic, political and cultural divides between the haves and the have-nots in the United States. We were delighted to host Musa for a book talk on the Carleton campus last month.
"You Can't Be an Egalitarian Social Climber"

Feb 1, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -19:19Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Our friend and colleague Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi has a new book out. And it’s a tour-de-force. We Have Never Been Wokeis essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the economic, political and cultural divides between the haves and the have-nots in the United States. We were delighted to host Musa for a book talk on the Carleton campus last month.
Trouble Ahead

Jan 21, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to PEN America’s Jeremy Young about what a second Trump administration holds in store for higher education. It was an informative—and sobering—conversation. Over the next four years, we should be prepared for a cascade of ideologically-driven threats to academic freedom, campus free expression and the basic integrity of higher education. If you would rather read than listen, there is a transcript attached below.
American University's Un-American Policies on Student Free Speech

Jan 15, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

On January 25, 2024, American University banned all indoor protests in the name of “inclusivity.” AU’s Office of the President explained this and other policy changes in a remarkable open letter that reads like a parody of what we call DEI, Inc. The first paragraph alone invokes “belonging” three times and “community” four times.
TRANSCRIPT: "Entitled to Judge"

Jan 15, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

This is the transcript for Banished — “Entitled to Judge.”AMNA KHALID: This is Banished and I’m Amna Khalid. Celebrated as the bedrock of democracy, freedom of expression is often seen as an American or western value. Yet the concept has a rich and global history. In the spring of 2023 I offered a course on the global history of free expression.
"Entitled to Judge"

Jan 15, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

Celebrated as the bedrock of democracy, freedom of expression is often seen as an American or western value. Yet the concept has a rich and global history. In the spring of 2023 I offered a course on the global history of free expression. The course tracks the long and turbulent history of freedom of expression from ancient Athens and medieval Islamic societies to the Enlightenment and the drive for censorship in totalitarian and colonial societies.
"Free Speech is the Language of the Powerless"

Jan 15, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

As I mentioned in my last podcast, in the spring of 2023 I offered a course on the global history of free expression in great part to debunk the notion that free speech is exclusively an American or western value. I enjoyed teaching this course immensely. For the final assignment, I asked students to write a letter to a person of their choosing reflecting on how their learning in class has made them rethink the parameters of speech and expression in their own contexts.
Diversity Statements Are Not the Answer to the Urgent Need to Diversify Faculty Ranks

Jan 15, 2025 | banished.substack.com | Amna Khalid

Earlier this month, we attended a conference on “Inclusive Critical Discourse on Campus” at Stanford Law School. It featured sessions on, among other topics, “Inclusion and Belonging,” “Free Expression on Campus” and “Institutional Neutrality.” There were about 25 of us in attendance, including faculty members like ourselves as well as administrators, leaders of free expression advocacy groups and journalists.