A Badge of Honor? Ongoing Threats to Academic Freedom

Abstract

Professor Watchlist, founded in 2016, is one of many attempts to surveil and influence the research, teaching, and extramural activities of faculty and other university employees. In this study, we interviewed 49 individuals listed on this website to analyze the effects of inclusion on the watchlist. While some respondents indicated no real effects, a majority of respondents indicated both positive and negative effects. Negative effects included hate mail, death threats, feeling unsafe and unsupported, and even a curtailing of some individuals’ teaching, research, or extramural activities. Overall, Professor Watchlist did affect the academic freedom of many respondents, but often in complex ways. We suggest that this watchlist is just one thread in the ongoing attempts to reshape higher education.