Some critics have reacted as if the very nature of the university and academic freedom have been threatened because unduly politicized. To this extraordinary, almost Copernican change in the general intellectual consciousness, responses have often been very hostile. In addition, a whole slew of controversial political issues like race, gender, imperialism, war, and slavery have found their way into lectures and seminars. For it is a fact that everywhere in the United States, which is after all an immigrant society made up of many Africans and Asians as well as Europeans, universities have finally had to deal with non-Western societies, with the literature, history, and particular concerns of women, various nationalities, and minorities and with unconventional, hitherto untaught subjects such as popular culture, mass communications and film, and oral history. For at least the past decade, a debate has been going on between those on the one hand who feel that the traditional curriculum of the liberal arts-in particular the core of Western humanities courses-has been under severe attack, and those on the other side, who believe that the curriculum in the humanities and the social sciences should more directly reflect the interests of groups in society who have been suppressed, ignored, or papered over with high-sounding formulas.
I hardly need to remind you that discussion concerning academic freedom is not only different in each society but also takes very different forms, one version of which in American universities today concerns the nature of the curriculum. Not that academic freedom has been a great deal easier to define, discuss, and defend for North American intellectuals. This prescription is altogether too cynical, and in its flippancy reflected what I think both of us felt: that the issue of academic freedom in a setting like this one here in Cape Town is far more complex and problematic for most of the usual formulas to cover with any kind of adequacy. “You mean, therefore, identity is the faculty, authority is the administration, and freedom…” Here he paused meaningfully. “Identity, Authority, and Freedom,” I replied.
“What is the title of your lecture?” he asked. Several weeks ago, as I was reflecting on what I might say at this occasion, I encountered a friendly colleague, whom I asked for ideas and suggestions.