Hess Week – Defending the Freedom to Learn

This panel explores how book bans and curriculum gag orders deny K-12 and college students’ freedom to learn and access to education.

• Emily Drabinski, President of the American Library Association; Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queen College
• Nishani Frazier, Professor of History and Director of Public History at North Carolina State University
• Paul Ortiz, Professor of History and Director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida; Robert L. Hess Scholar 2023-24
• Moderator: Gunja SenGupta, Professor of History at Brooklyn College

Sponsored by the Frederic Ewen Civil Liberties and Academic Freedom Lecture and the Brooklyn College School of Education.

All events will be live-streamed on the Wolfe Institute’s YouTube Channel.

Free versions of Paul Ortiz’s writings and other relevant readings are available online to the Brooklyn College community.

Hosted by Brooklyn College’s Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities in honor of Professor Paul Ortiz, our 2023-24 Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence.