- Joined
- Jun 18, 2018
- Messages
- 54,930
- Reaction score
- 51,835
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Progressive
"The future of the Kinsey Institute, the world’s premier sex research center, is in limbo. Last April, lawmakers in Indiana’s Republican-dominated state legislature voted to block the Kinsey Institute from receiving any state funds through Indiana University (IU), which houses the institute. ...The outcome of the skirmish over the Kinsey Institute and Indiana University will signal whether conservative lawmakers can dictate the bounds of academic research into human sexuality, at a time when far-right politicians are rushing to exert unprecedented control over what is taught in schools and universities around the country.
The Kinsey Institute’s research into sex and sexuality has ignited controversy for decades, but this latest battle places it at the white-hot center of a national debate over schools, sexuality, and gender. Nationwide, hundreds of bills have been introduced in recent years aiming to ban certain topics from K-12 schools and universities. Since last year, instruction on issues relating to sex and gender has topped the rightwing’s target list. But the primary goal of Kinsey Institute, unlike many of the targets of those bills, is research. Its scholars investigate issues like sexual assault, disability and sexual health, and the history of human sexuality.
...An entirely different threat to Kinsey Institute researchers, and the rest of the university’s faculty, is on the horizon: the state legislature last week advanced a bill that hands university board of trustees the power to evaluate tenure appointments every five years for “criteria related to free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity” – effectively erasing the point of tenure.
Indiana isn’t alone – in 2023, at least six states introduced nine bills to undermine tenure, according to the American Association of University Professors. Tenure has long been believed to be essential to academic freedom, since it allows higher-education faculty to pursue potentially controversial work without fear of repercussions."
Link
The Republicans' use of government to curtail or eliminate academic freedom is growing and threatens the pursuit of knowledge that improves people's lives.
The Kinsey Institute’s research into sex and sexuality has ignited controversy for decades, but this latest battle places it at the white-hot center of a national debate over schools, sexuality, and gender. Nationwide, hundreds of bills have been introduced in recent years aiming to ban certain topics from K-12 schools and universities. Since last year, instruction on issues relating to sex and gender has topped the rightwing’s target list. But the primary goal of Kinsey Institute, unlike many of the targets of those bills, is research. Its scholars investigate issues like sexual assault, disability and sexual health, and the history of human sexuality.
...An entirely different threat to Kinsey Institute researchers, and the rest of the university’s faculty, is on the horizon: the state legislature last week advanced a bill that hands university board of trustees the power to evaluate tenure appointments every five years for “criteria related to free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity” – effectively erasing the point of tenure.
Indiana isn’t alone – in 2023, at least six states introduced nine bills to undermine tenure, according to the American Association of University Professors. Tenure has long been believed to be essential to academic freedom, since it allows higher-education faculty to pursue potentially controversial work without fear of repercussions."
Link
The Republicans' use of government to curtail or eliminate academic freedom is growing and threatens the pursuit of knowledge that improves people's lives.
