Graduation Term

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

School of Communication

Committee Chair

Andrew Ventimiglia

Committee Member

Lindsey Thomas

Committee Member

Lauren Bratslavsky

Abstract

From October of 2023 to August 2025, the community at Columbia University engaged in a series of debates regarding the meaning of academic freedom. Academic freedom, first institutionalized in the United States during the first world war, has shifted over the decades as the purpose of higher education and the threats to higher education changed. In recent years, campus protests regarding Israel and Palestine have sparked new debates about academic freedom that reflect ongoing and sometimes fundamental disagreements about higher education. This study utilizes Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT; Baxter, 2011) to explore the interplay between different discourses of academic freedom within texts addressing Columbia University’s protests regarding Israel and Palestine as well as the subsequent settlement between Columbia and the Trump Administration. By analyzing the discourses found within these texts I argue that academic freedom can be articulated as a privilege, service, and right, respectively. These discourses interplay in both contractive and expansive ways which underscore current threats towards higher education and the attempts to combat them.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

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