There is a new form of intolerance sweeping the art world today, one that demands conformity of thought and rejects nuance on complicated social issues. Those who question or challenge this new and evolving orthodoxy risk damaging their careers and reputations. Is it worth it to speak up, or is there more to lose by remaining silent? What is the impact on art when artists, whom we count on to use their voices and give them expression, are afraid to speak their minds?

Hear from Newsweek deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon, Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle, and University of Maryland professor Jason Nichols. This event was co-sponsored by the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU.

From the very beginning, the history and study of the American Revolution has been bound up with the national identity of the United States, and thus with the country’s present needs. In recent years, the competing imperatives of activists and journalists at both edges of our ideological spectrum have produced warring narratives of the American founding: slavery versus liberty, original sin versus germinal gift, a conclave of villains versus garden of heroes. Both of these approaches owe more to politics than to history.

In the kickoff event of the 2022-23 Civic Discourse Project lecture series, Eric Kaufmann - Professor and Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London - discussed ideological conformity on campus and what he refers to as "cultural socialism" as a dominant in western higher education and in elite culture.

For over a thousand years, the traditional purpose of a university has been the pursuit of truth, and universities have focused on the discovery and dissemination of knowledge. But in recent decades, as academic institutions became more inclusive, many universities seem to have adopted a different mission: the achievement of social justice. Which goal should universities pursue and how do these two different purposes relate to each other?