Description:

The MENA Studies Program invites the university community to this scholarly event delving into some of the most pressing issues of our time. The talk will include a discussion of case law, research, and current events, analyzed in their larger context and with implications for academic freedom.

Rima Kapitan runs a law practice based in Chicago with one other partner and litigates academic cases in Illinois and several other states. Her scholarly publications about academic freedom, academic boycott, and faculty governance include, “Safeguarding Academic Freedom on Campus Through Faculty Governance,” in The Value and Limits of Academic Speech: Philosophical, Political and Legal Perspectives (2018); “On Myths, Straw Men and Academic Freedom,” AAUP Journal of Academic Freedom (2013); and “Academic Freedom as a Fundamental Human Right in American Jurisprudence and the Imposition of ‘Balance’ on Academic Discourse About the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict” Arab Studies Quarterly (2011). She has also spoken on those topics at the New York University School of Law, California State University-Fresno, the Fordham University School of Law, conferences of the Middle East Studies Association, and conferences of the Illinois Conference of the American Association of University Professors, among other venues.