More than half of U.S. college students now attend institutions in states where new laws and policies restrict what can be taught and how campuses can operate, according to a new PEN America report. In this conversation, Jonathan Friedman and Amy Reid explore how these constraints are reshaping student learning, faculty work, and the vital research that transforms curiosity into innovations that drive economic growth, create high-paying jobs, strengthen national security, improve public health, and power new technologies.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. They champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Their mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

Jonathan Friedman

Jonathan Friedman, Ph.D., is the Sy Syms managing director of U.S. free expression programs at PEN America, where he leads national advocacy to protect the freedom to write, read, and learn and to safeguard the free circulation of literature, art, and ideas. Since joining PEN America in 2018 as the inaugural director of its Campus Free Speech Program, he has developed free expression workshops for higher education, expanded the organization’s work opposing book bans, educational gag orders, and government censorship in schools and universities, and overseen initiatives such as the Flashpoints centenary series and Free Expression Advocacy institutes for youth. An interdisciplinary scholar and prolific report author and media commentator on academic, artistic, and press freedom, he has facilitated dozens of programs across education, library, and arts sectors and holds an MA and Ph.D. in international education from NYU.

Amy Reid

Amy Reid is the Interim Program Director for PEN America’s Freedom to Learn Program, where she collaborates with national and state-based networks to resist government censorship in higher education and champion public education and the liberal arts. She previously served as a professor of French and director of Gender Studies at New College of Florida, and in 2023–2024 was Chair of the Faculty and faculty representative on the Board of Trustees, working to defend academic freedom in the Florida State University System. A PhD in French from Yale and an award-winning translator of Francophone African fiction, she has translated works by authors including Véronique Tadjo, Patrice Nganang, Mutt-Lon, and Blaise Ndala, and is currently translating Marie-Célie Agnant’s novel Rosa the Alligator, forthcoming in 2025.

Resources:

America’s Censored Campuses: Expanding the Web of Control

https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-campuses-25-web-of-control/

Snapshots of Censorship

https://pen.org/snapshots-of-censorship/