Jennifer Ruth is a Professor in the School of Film at Portland State University. She is the author, with Michael Bérubé, of The Humanities, Higher Education, and Academic Freedom: Three Necessary Arguments and It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom. She is an editor, with Ellen Schrecker and Valerie Johnson, of The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom, which won the AAC&U Best Book Prize (2025). With Jan Haaken, she directed the film The Palestine Exception: What’s at Stake in the Campus Protests? which can be screened through Watermelon Pictures, Kanopy, and Collective Eye. She is a longtime member of the AAUP's Committee A (Academic Freedom) and organizes with the Coalition for Action in Higher Ed.

What does comparing the present moment to the Cold War Red Scare's attack on academic freedom tell us? This talk will explore parallels and, more importantly, significant differences between then and now.

Coffee and pastries will be served.