“The Assault on Academic Freedom and the Fight Against the Far Right” with Tom Alter
March 9, 2026
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Location
Student Center East Cardinal Room
Calendar
Download iCal FileJoin us for a critical conversation on academic freedom with UIC alum, Tom Alter (PhD 2016). Tom Alter was a tenured professor of history at Texas State University who was fired without due process over a talk he gave in his personal capacity to a socialist conference.
Alter will discuss the growing far-right attacks on higher education and democratic rights that he and many others have faced. During the talk used as grounds for his firing, Alter advocated opposing ICE raids, walking picket lines in support of striking workers, and defending transgender people. These are all popular ideas that we must mobilize around. To silence dissent, far-right politicians now completely disregard constitutional rights, with many even openly questioning democracy itself. There is, however, hope. Alter’s local unions, and the Texas labor movement generally, have robustly backed the campaign for free speech, providing an example of how unions can forge a vigorous, nonpartisan opposition to the growing fascist current--and fight for a better world.
Sponsored by UIC United Faculty.
Co-sponsored by UIC Graduate Employees Organization, UIC Social Justice Initiative, UIC Institute for Race and Public Policy, Mellon Foundation, and UIC programs and departments: Black Studies; Criminology, Law, and Justice; English; Institute for the Humanities; Global Asian Studies; History; Latino and Latin American Studies; Museum and Exhibition Studies; School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics; Sociology.
Date posted
Feb 18, 2026
Date updated
Feb 18, 2026