Freedom of Expression
Spring 2025
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to debates about freedom of expression. What is ‘freedom of speech’? Is there a right to say anything? Why? The course investigates who has had this right, where and why, and what it has had to do in particular with politics and culture. What powers does speech have, and for what? Debates about censorship, dissidence and protest, hate speech, the First Amendment and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are obvious starting points, but the course also explores some less obvious questions: about faith and the secular, the rights of minorities, migration, surveillance, speaking and political agency, law and politics, social media, and the force(s) of words. In asking about the status of the speaking human subject, the course looks at how the subject of rights, and indeed the thought of human rights itself, derives from an experience of claiming, speaking, and speaking up. These questions are examined, if not answered, across a variety of philosophical, legal, journalistic, and political texts, with a heavy dose of case studies (many of them happening right now) and readings in contemporary critical and legal theory. Taught in parallel with OSUN partner institutions where many assignments and activities are shared, and students work jointly with peers at other schools.This network course includes an online section that is open to enrollment to OSUN students across the network. Please visit the OSUN Online Courses for further information.
This course counts toward the Human Rights certificate and the Civic Engagement certificate.
Campuses Offering the Course
Al-Quds Bard CollegeAmerican University of Central Asia
Bard College
European Humanities University
Instructors
Zlata Bozac, Al-Quds Bard College Pinar Kemerli, Bard College
Bhole Nath, American University of Central Asia
Kseniya Shtalenkova, European Humanities University