Nineteenth Annual
University of Michigan Senate's
Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture
on Academic and Intellectual Freedom
"Galileo's Ghost -- Seventeenth-Century Censorship in Twenty-First-Century America"
Monday, November 9, 2009
4:00 pm
Honigman Auditorium, 100 Hutchins
Hall
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan
Philip Hamburger
Maurice and Hilda
Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Philip Hamburger is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law
at the Columbia University School of Law. He is a distinguished legal historian
and a scholar of constitutional law and is known for his work on the First
Amendment--both on religious liberty and on freedom of speech. Before moving to
Columbia, he was the John P. Wilson Professor of Law at the University of
Chicago Law School, where he was also Director of the Bigelow Program and the
Legal History Program. He was previously Oswald Symyster Colclough Research
Professor at George Washington University Law School and, before that, he
taught at the University of Connecticut Law School. He has been a Visiting
Professor at the University of Virginia Law School and was the Jack N. Pritzker
Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Northwestern Law School.
For additional information:
Website: www.umich.edu/~aflf
Telephone: 734-764-0303
The
2009 Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom is
sponsored by the Academic Freedom Lecture Fund, American Association of University Professors University
of Michigan-Ann Arbor Chapter and Michigan Conference, University of Michigan
Office of the President, University of Michigan Office of the Provost, University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for
Communications, University of Michigan Law School, and the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs.
This lecture is free and open to the public.
Academic Freedom Lecture Honorees
Clement Markert, Mark Nickerson and
Chandler Davis
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On the question of the 12th Annual Davis, Markert
Nickerson Symposium on Academic and Intellectual Freedom -
by Steve Nickerson, son of Professor Mark Nickerson, November 1, 2002
History
In 1954,
three University of Michigan faculty members, Chandler Davis, Clement Markert, and
Mark Nickerson, were called to testify before a Congressional Committee on
Un-American Activities. All invoked Constitutional rights and refused to answer
Committee questions abut their political associations.
For these
actions, the three were suspended and Professor Nickerson was denied the summer
portion of his fiscal year salary. Subsequent hearings and committee actions at
the University of Michigan resulted in three different outcomes. Markert was
reinstated; but Nickerson, a tenured professor, and Davis were dismissed from
the University.
Those events
were recently revisited as a result of the centennial Celebration of Rackham
Graduate School. An historical review by Professor David Hollinger led an
honors student in English in 1988, Adam Kulakow to produce a video history of
the events. Subsequently, the University of Michigan Chapter of the American
Association of University Professors endorsed a statement on October 25, 1989,
requesting a significant gesture of reconciliation for the three professors.
The Senate
Assembly considered the AAUP request, endorsed it in January of 1990, and
presented the request to the Regents in March and April of 1990. The Senate
Assembly Chair suggested that a significant gesture of reconciliation might
include reinstatement for Professors Davis and Nickerson, payment of severance
pay, and the establishment of an annual University Lecture on Academic and
Intellectual Freedom. A parallel was drawn with the recognition by the federal
government of the wrongful internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
and the issuing of an apology and financial compensation by the government. The
Regents took no action on this request.
On November
19, 1990, the Senate Assembly established The University of Michigan Senate's
Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom.
President
Bollinger announced to Senate Assembly on September 28, 1998 that his Office
will co-sponsor the Academic Freedom Lecture.
Senate Assembly
Resolution
The faculty of the University of
Michigan affirms that academic and intellectual freedom are fundamental values
for a university in a free society. They form the foundation of the rights of
free inquiry, free expression and free dissent that are necessary for the life
of the university.
The faculty recognizes that such
rights are human creations, the product of both the reasoned actions and the
deep- seated commitments of women and men. When such actions and commitments
are set in human institutions, people may secure for themselves and for others,
in the present and the future, the enjoyment of those rights.
We also recognize that these values
and the rights they imply are vulnerable to the fads, fashions, social
movements and mass fears that threaten to still dissent and to censure carriers
of unpopular ideas. Such was the case in 1954 when the University of Michigan
suspended three faculty members and subsequently dismissed two of them. We
deeply regret the failure of the University community to protect the
fundamental values of intellectual freedom at that time. It is to guard against
a repetition of those events and to protect the fundamental freedoms of those
who come after us that we make this resolution today.
The protection of academic and
intellectual freedoms requires a constant reminder of their value and
vulnerability. To provide for that reminder, the Faculty of the University of
Michigan hereby resolves to establish an Annual Senate Lecture on Academic and
on Intellectual Freedom, to be named: "The University of Michigan Senate's
Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom."
(Adopted November 19, 1990)
H. Chandler
Davis
H. Chandler Davis, a pre-eminent
mathematician, is currently a Professor at the University of Toronto where he
has held academic posts since 1962 and is Vice President of the American
Mathematical Society. He has held several editorial positions in the field of
mathematics, including Advisor Editor to Linear Algebra and its Applications
and Review Editor and Editor-in-Chief for the Mathematical intelligence.
Professor Davis earned his academic
credentials, BS, MA, and Ph.D. degrees, at Harvard University. He began his
professional career as an Instructor at the University of Michigan from 1950 to
1954.
In addition to publishing research
articles on mathematics, Professor Davis writes science fiction and has also
authored several hortatory essays, such as "From An Exile," published
in The New Professors, edited by R.O. Bowen (1960); "The Purge ," in
A Century of Mathematics in America, published by the American Mathematical
Society in 1989 and "Science for Good or Ill," a booklet in the
Waging Peace Series (1990).
While an Instructor at the University
of Michigan in 1954, Chandler Davis chose to test the constitutionality of the
House Un-American Activities Committee by refusing to testify before the
Committee without invoking protection from self-incrimination under the Fifth
Amendment. As a result of his actions, Davis was suspended from the University.
His reinstatement was supported by his department and college but not by the
Faculty Senate, and he was subsequently dismissed from the University. He was
also cited for contempt of Congress, indicted in 1954, and convicted in 1957.
His appeals to the courts were exhausted in 1959, and he served a sentence in
federal prison in 1960.
Clement L.
Markert
Clement L. Markert, Distinguished
University Research Professor of Animal Science and Genetics at North Carolina
State University, is a leading authority in biological research. His research
interests are focused on developmental genetics, reproductive biology, and
biotechnology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and served as
Co-Chair of the Developmental Biology Interdisciplinary Cluster for President
Ford's Biomedical Research Panel in 1975. Professor Markert has been elected to
the Presidency of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American
Society of Zoologists, the Society for Developmental Biology, and the American
Genetic Association.
Previously, Professor Markert was the
Henry Ford II Professor of biology at Yale University, chairing the Department
from 1965 to 1971. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of
Zoology at the University of Michigan in 1950 after earning his doctorate from
Johns Hopkins University, his M.A. at the University of California at Los
Angeles, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado.
In 1954 Clement Markert was called to
testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He invoked
Constitutional rights according to the Fifth amendment and refused to answer
the Committee's questions concerning his political associations. Consequently,
he was suspended from the University of Michigan. He was later reinstated with
the support of the Faculty Senate, his department, and his college, he
eventually achieved tenure.
Professor Markert passed away in
1999.
Mark Nickerson
Mark Nickerson has made major contributions to
the field of Pharmacology with his seminal research on adrenergic blocking
drugs. He was awarded the John Jacob Abel Award in Pharmacology in 1949 and has
served as President of the Pharmacological Society of Canada and the American
Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He has chaired the
Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences and is the author of 250 scientific
publications.
Nickerson was an Emeritus Professor of
Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University. He had been at McGill since
1967, chairing his department from 1967 to 1975. He also held academic
positions at the University of Manitoba, the University of Michigan, and the
University of Utah.
Professor Nickerson graduated summa cum Laude
from Linfield College and earned his Sc.M. from Brown University, his Ph.D. from
Johns Hopkins University, and an M.D. from the University of Utah.
In 1954, Mark Nickerson was an Associate
Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan, with tenure. He was
called to testify before the House Un-American Activities committee and chose
to invoke the Fifth Amendment in response to the Committee's questions. He was
immediately suspended by the University as a result. Professor Nickerson's
reinstatement was supported by the Faculty Senate but not by his department or
by the Medical School. He was subsequently dismissed from the University
despite his tenured appointment.
Professor Nickerson passed away in 1998.
|
1991 |
Robert M.
O'Neil, Founding Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection
of Free Expression, Professor of Law, University of Virginia. |
|
1992 |
Lee C.
Bollinger, Dean and Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School. |
1993
|
Catharine R. Stimpson,
University Professor, Rutgers University. |
|
1994 |
Walter P.
Metzger, Emeritus Professor of History, Columbia University. |
|
1995 |
Linda Ray Pratt,
Professor of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. |
|
1996 |
Avern
Cohn, United States District Court Judge, Eastern District of Michigan. |
|
1997 |
Roger Wood
Wilkins, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture,
George Mason University. Designated as a Martin Luther King, Jr. -
Cesar Chavez, - Rosa Parks Visiting Professor. |
|
1998 |
Eugene
Roberts, Jr., Professor of Journalism, University of Maryland and Managing
Editor of the New York Times |
|
1999 |
David Hollinger, Chancellor's
Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley |
|
2000 |
10
Year Celebration Panel
1: "Silencing Voices" Panel
2: "Scientific Evidence: Junk or Cutting Edge Science" Panel
3: "Constructive Dialogues on Thorny Issues" |
|
2001 |
Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie
Corporation of New York |
|
2002 |
Catharine MacKinnon, Elizabeth A Long
Professor of Law, University of Michigan |
|
2003 |
David D. Cole, Professor
of Law, Georgetown University Law Center |
|
2004 |
Noam
Chomsky, Institute Professor; Professor of Linguistics, Linguistic Theory,
Syntax, Semantics, and Philosophy of Language; Massachusetts Institute of
Technology |
|
2005 |
Floyd Abrams, William J. Brennan, Jr.
Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law, Columbia University Graduate
School of Journalism; Partner, Cahil Gordon & Reindel |
|
2006 |
Bill Keller, Executive Editor, The New
York Times |
|
2007 |
Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil
Liberties Union |
|
2008 |
Cass R. Sunstein, Felix Frankfurter
Professor of Law, Harvard Law School |
Academic Freedom Lectures available as
playback on demand
Sponsors
The
assistance and support of the following organizations made the 2008 Academic
Freedom Lecture program possible:
Academic
Freedom Lecture Fund
American Association of University
Professors - University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Chapter and Michigan Conference
University of Michigan Office of the
President
University of Michigan Office of the
Vice President for Communications
University of Michigan
Law School
University
of Michigan Vice Provost for Academic Information
University of Michigan Board for Student
Publications
Senate Advisory Committee on University
Affairs