Geoffrey Stone to deliver keynote at the FIRE Faculty Conference, and presenters announced!

Preparations for the FIRE Faculty Conference, taking place in Chicago this October 11-13, 2018, are well underway! We’re very pleased to share some additional information about the conference program, including the keynote speaker and the conference presenters.   

We’re delighted to announce that Geoffrey Stone, the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, will deliver the keynote address at the conference. Stone is an expert on constitutional law and the First Amendment and the author of many books including “Eternally Vigilant: Free Speech in the Modern Era,” “Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime,” and “War and Liberty: An American Dilemma.” He’s most recently the author of “Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century,” which he discussed with FIRE on our So to Speak podcast.

Stone also chaired the Committee on Free Expression at the University of Chicago, which was convened in 2014 with the charge of drafting a statement “articulating the University’s overarching commitment to free, robust, and uninhibited debate and deliberation among all members of the University’s community.” The report released by the committee in 2015 is known as the “Chicago Statement,” and it has been adopted or endorsed by 42 institutions and faculty bodies around the country as a way to protect and defend free expression and academic freedom on campus. In 2015, FIRE put together a video with Stone about the purpose and importance of the Chicago Statement.

We’re also excited to share information on this year’s conference presenters. These professors’ outstanding work was selected from the more than 100 proposals submitted during our open call for submissions earlier this year, and we look forward to discussing their papers:

• Jeremy Bailey, University of Houston 
• Michael Bailey, Northwestern University 
• Linda Frey, University of Montana 
• John Hasnas, Georgetown University Law Center 
• Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder, Carleton College 
• Jason Marsh, St. Olaf College 
• Michael Lanford, University of Southern California 
• David Rabban, University of Texas at Austin School of Law

If you’re interested in attending the conference, we’re still accepting applications! There is no cost to register and every accepted attendee will be eligible to receive a $750 travel stipend. We’ll be accepting applications on a rolling basis through July 31. Space is limited, so apply soon!

Please email facultyconference@thefire.org with any questions.