Nicholas H. Wolfinger is Professor of Family and Consumer Studies and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Utah. He received his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles, both in sociology. He is the author of Understanding the Divorce Cycle: The Children of Divorce in Their Own Marriages (2005), Fragile Families and the Marriage Agenda (edited with Lori Kowaleski-Jones, 2005), Do Babies Matter: Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower (with Mary Ann Mason and Marc Goulden, 2013), Soul Mates: Religion, Sex, Children, and Marriage among African Americans and Latinos (with W. Bradford Wilcox, 2016), and Thanks for Nothing: The Economics of Single Motherhood since 1980 (with Matthew McKeever, 2024). Wolfinger is the author of about 40 articles or chapters, as well as short pieces in The Atlantic, National Review, Huffington Post, and other outlets. Between 2016 and 2021, his university investigated him three times.
Professors Speak Out showcases the powerful stories of eighteen university professors from various fields and backgrounds, all of whom have been investigated by their academic institutions. These shocking narratives reflect the rising frequency and increasing absurdity of campus investigations, which often result from the expression of disfavored opinions that should be protected by inalienable free speech rights and longstanding principles of academic freedom. As the reader will learn, the investigation itself is often the punishment, though the process can inflict serious additional sanctions. Some contributors lost their jobs, while others have faced a variety of other unwarranted consequences. By providing a badly needed platform for persecuted voices in contemporary academia, this unique volume exposes the grave injustice that menaces faculty members today and calls into serious question the reprehensible bureaucratic processes that allow for such investigations. Taken together, the eighteen contributors show how a new campus McCarthyism is brutally assaulting academic freedom.
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