AALS Hot Topic Program

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Session Type: AALS Hot Topic Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside

Room: Canal

Floor: Third Floor

This panel will use the forthcoming book by Professor Brian Soucek, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education (University of Chicago Press, January 2026) as a springboard for exploring current issues of academic freedom and free speech across the US. As the scope and scale of these controversies accelerate, they raise critical issues of what it means to be a law school and a university in 2026. Commentators will include law school deans who represent a wide spectrum of schools, including public and private institutions and ones with a religious affiliation.