Policing Higher Education
Darian-Smith, Eve
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
Darian-Smith, Eve.
Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters.
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025.
Project MUSE. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/126855.
For additional information about this book
https://muse.jhu.edu/book/126855
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
[185.147.212.143] Project MUSE (2025-05-05 21:29 GMT)
,[185.147.212.143] Project MUSE (2025-05-05 21:29 GMT)
, Praise for Policing Higher Education
“Eve Darian-Smith has written a book for our times. Policing Higher Education
provides a primer on our driving issues today: free expression and academic
freedom, the grounds of knowledge making, and the demands of critical social
engagement in a world of interactively spiraling authoritarianism and repres-
sion. A probing analysis to think with.” —David Theo Goldberg,
University of California, Irvine,
author of The War on Critical Race Theory:
Or, the Remaking of Racism
“Policing Higher Education brings an international perspective to contemporary
debates about academic freedom. In response to attacks on both scholarship
and constitutional democracy, Darian-Smith urges us to define and defend aca-
demic freedom as an ethical practice founded on social responsibility. This
ambitious work will be essential reading for anyone concerned about the
future of higher education in the US and around the world.”
—Henry “Hank” Reichman, author of Understanding
Academic Freedom
“Policing Higher Education moves beyond the limitations of domestically fo-
cused analyses to place academic freedom in a global context. Connecting the
dots between pressures on academic freedom, antidemocracy movements, and
global economic powers, it gives readers indispensable tools for expanded un-
derstanding and action across disciplinary borders, institutions, and nation-
states.” —Anne McCall, The College of Wooster;
Scholars at Risk, United States Section
“Eve Darian-Smith has produced a book of seminal importance. She offers a
brilliant defense of the humanities, academic freedom, and scholars as criti-
cally engaged intellectuals. In addition, she integrates history, criticism, and a
discourse of resistance and hope into essential reading for anyone concerned
about the relationship between education and democracy. This book could
not have appeared at a more crucial time.” —Henry Giroux,
author of Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy:
Education in a Time of Crisis
“In a time of severe ideological attacks on academic freedom and on higher
education in general, books such as Policing Higher Education are even more
necessary. Eve Darian-Smith’s volume needs to be widely read and discussed
by anyone who cares about what is happening to higher education today.”
—Michael W. Apple, author of Can Education Change Society?
, “Policing Higher Education gives us hope for why we should care about what is
happening in our universities and for how we can build resilience and momen-
tum for justice through difficult conversations and coalitions. A must-read for
all those engaged with higher education and for those who care about the state
of the world.” —Swati Parashar, University of Gothenburg
“Both a passionate manifesto and fact-based academic account, Policing Higher
Education places the attacks on academic freedom and autonomy in the US in a
global perspective and relates them to the importance of social responsibility
for higher education.” —Hans de Wit, Center for International
Higher Education, Boston College
“Surveying the growing challenges in the US, including the corporate capture of
universities, increased policing activities on university grounds, and the banning
of so-called controversial topics, Darian-Smith makes a compelling case for soci-
ety to defend the public mission of universities. This book shows a way forward.”
—Salvador Herencia-Carrasco,
University of Ottawa; Coalition for Academic
Freedom in the Americas
“It is tempting to see Ron DeSantis’s ransacking of New College, Christopher
Rufo’s attack on critical race theory, and Texas’s defunding of offices for diver-
sity, equity, and inclusion as exceptional acts of right-wing overreach. Darian-
Smith, however, provides the much-needed tools to situate these attacks as local
iterations of the creeping authoritarianism and societal fascisms spreading
around the world. Defenders of democracy and academic freedom must enter
the existential fight ahead with the clear analysis that Darian-Smith provides.”
—Isaac Kamola, Trinity College; director,
Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom,
American Association of University Professors
“Eve Darian-Smith has produced a fresh take of vital importance for those who
care about American and global democracy. This is a must-read book not only
for new and seasoned scholars alike but for anyone concerned about backslid-
ing democracies. What’s especially original is the manner in which Darian-
Smith foregrounds the link between rising antidemocracy and recent declines
in academic freedom. The best part is that she provides a road map for fighting
back!” —Marc Spooner, coeditor of the forthcoming
What Are Universities For? Challenges and Re-imaginings
“Scholars deeply desire the freedoms to learn, teach, investigate, and publish
and to cooperate with each other in doing so. Unless they can practice truth
and the common good in the public sphere, and unless governments every-
where respect their rights and listen to what they say, we cannot meet the
climate-nature emergency and the other great challenges we face.”
—Simon Marginson, University of Oxford;
editor, Higher Education
Darian-Smith, Eve
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
Darian-Smith, Eve.
Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters.
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025.
Project MUSE. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/126855.
For additional information about this book
https://muse.jhu.edu/book/126855
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
[185.147.212.143] Project MUSE (2025-05-05 21:29 GMT)
,[185.147.212.143] Project MUSE (2025-05-05 21:29 GMT)
, Praise for Policing Higher Education
“Eve Darian-Smith has written a book for our times. Policing Higher Education
provides a primer on our driving issues today: free expression and academic
freedom, the grounds of knowledge making, and the demands of critical social
engagement in a world of interactively spiraling authoritarianism and repres-
sion. A probing analysis to think with.” —David Theo Goldberg,
University of California, Irvine,
author of The War on Critical Race Theory:
Or, the Remaking of Racism
“Policing Higher Education brings an international perspective to contemporary
debates about academic freedom. In response to attacks on both scholarship
and constitutional democracy, Darian-Smith urges us to define and defend aca-
demic freedom as an ethical practice founded on social responsibility. This
ambitious work will be essential reading for anyone concerned about the
future of higher education in the US and around the world.”
—Henry “Hank” Reichman, author of Understanding
Academic Freedom
“Policing Higher Education moves beyond the limitations of domestically fo-
cused analyses to place academic freedom in a global context. Connecting the
dots between pressures on academic freedom, antidemocracy movements, and
global economic powers, it gives readers indispensable tools for expanded un-
derstanding and action across disciplinary borders, institutions, and nation-
states.” —Anne McCall, The College of Wooster;
Scholars at Risk, United States Section
“Eve Darian-Smith has produced a book of seminal importance. She offers a
brilliant defense of the humanities, academic freedom, and scholars as criti-
cally engaged intellectuals. In addition, she integrates history, criticism, and a
discourse of resistance and hope into essential reading for anyone concerned
about the relationship between education and democracy. This book could
not have appeared at a more crucial time.” —Henry Giroux,
author of Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy:
Education in a Time of Crisis
“In a time of severe ideological attacks on academic freedom and on higher
education in general, books such as Policing Higher Education are even more
necessary. Eve Darian-Smith’s volume needs to be widely read and discussed
by anyone who cares about what is happening to higher education today.”
—Michael W. Apple, author of Can Education Change Society?
, “Policing Higher Education gives us hope for why we should care about what is
happening in our universities and for how we can build resilience and momen-
tum for justice through difficult conversations and coalitions. A must-read for
all those engaged with higher education and for those who care about the state
of the world.” —Swati Parashar, University of Gothenburg
“Both a passionate manifesto and fact-based academic account, Policing Higher
Education places the attacks on academic freedom and autonomy in the US in a
global perspective and relates them to the importance of social responsibility
for higher education.” —Hans de Wit, Center for International
Higher Education, Boston College
“Surveying the growing challenges in the US, including the corporate capture of
universities, increased policing activities on university grounds, and the banning
of so-called controversial topics, Darian-Smith makes a compelling case for soci-
ety to defend the public mission of universities. This book shows a way forward.”
—Salvador Herencia-Carrasco,
University of Ottawa; Coalition for Academic
Freedom in the Americas
“It is tempting to see Ron DeSantis’s ransacking of New College, Christopher
Rufo’s attack on critical race theory, and Texas’s defunding of offices for diver-
sity, equity, and inclusion as exceptional acts of right-wing overreach. Darian-
Smith, however, provides the much-needed tools to situate these attacks as local
iterations of the creeping authoritarianism and societal fascisms spreading
around the world. Defenders of democracy and academic freedom must enter
the existential fight ahead with the clear analysis that Darian-Smith provides.”
—Isaac Kamola, Trinity College; director,
Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom,
American Association of University Professors
“Eve Darian-Smith has produced a fresh take of vital importance for those who
care about American and global democracy. This is a must-read book not only
for new and seasoned scholars alike but for anyone concerned about backslid-
ing democracies. What’s especially original is the manner in which Darian-
Smith foregrounds the link between rising antidemocracy and recent declines
in academic freedom. The best part is that she provides a road map for fighting
back!” —Marc Spooner, coeditor of the forthcoming
What Are Universities For? Challenges and Re-imaginings
“Scholars deeply desire the freedoms to learn, teach, investigate, and publish
and to cooperate with each other in doing so. Unless they can practice truth
and the common good in the public sphere, and unless governments every-
where respect their rights and listen to what they say, we cannot meet the
climate-nature emergency and the other great challenges we face.”
—Simon Marginson, University of Oxford;
editor, Higher Education
