Join Peter Ives, Adel Iskandar and Zoë Druick in conversation about Rethinking Free Speech
Clashes over free expression haunt public debates from pro-Palestinian protests to attempts to regulate social media. Free speech defenders present it as a single, simple principle castigating others for being inconsistent, self-interested and cowardly. This talk and the book it launches argue that we must rethink the concept, distinguishing different principles and goals that underlie common assumptions. We need to understand the difference between legal rights and communicative ideals, between academic freedom and free expression, the different legal terrains of the US and Canada, and the nature of our new spheres of discussion on social media.
Peter Ives is professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of Gramsci’s Politics of Language and Language and Hegemony in Gramsci, and co-editor of Gramsci, Language and Translation and Language Policy and Political Theory. He has published in Rethinking Marxism, Political Studies, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy and Language Policy. He researches and writes on the politics of “global English” and bridging the disciplines of language policy and political theory.