Stepping off a plane at Chicago O’Hare last week, part of me wondered what the hell I was doing there. I knew where I was headed—to the downtown Marriott on the “Magnificent Mile” for the latest conference of Heterodox Academy (Hxa), that motley crew of public-spirited academic misfits battling for diversity of discourse in higher education whom I’d only just joined. But I wasn’t sure what to expect or if I’d quite fit in.
I’m not an academic, after all, and no longer work for a college or university. I may be a journalist of sorts, but unaffiliated with industry stalwarts like Inside Higher Ed or The Chronicle of Higher Education. Yet since launching this Substack I’ve been embroiled in the fight to somehow salvage some kind of freedom of speech and thought on campus, and especially among the fancier places.
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