An incisive examination of how pundits and politicians manufactured the campus free speech crisis--and created a genuine challenge to academic freedom in the process.

Campus Misinformation: The Real threat to free speech in american higher education

by bradford vivian

  • Shows how the so-called free speech crisis on US college campuses has been manufactured through misinformation, distortion, and political ideology

  • Traces the evolution of campus misinformation from its origins in early backlash against affirmative action to current arguments about "viewpoint diversity"

  • Deconstructs the rhetoric of politicians and commentators who created and spread campus misinformation and who have brought the same tactics to challenge critical race theory

  • Argues that campus misinformation threatens not only to academic freedom but also civil liberties in US society writ large

  • Offers practical guidelines to help readers distinguish between abuses of scientific evidence and sound scientific claims in public argument

"This book is essential reading not only on how to debunk misinformation about academia and college life but also on how and why the college campus became a target of partisan propaganda in the first place. Bradford Vivian does the hard work of sifting through reams of misinformation while maintaining a focus on the empirical, providing context that will change your mind about the latest campus controversy."

―Aaron R. Hanlon, Associate Professor of English; Chair, Science, Technology, and Society Department; Director, Public Voices Initiative, Colby College

"Vivian's Campus Misinformation is a timely and useful book that is a thoughtful and elegant response to the fabricated moral panic about supposed suppression of 'free speech' on college campuses. Vivian does an elegant job of showing that this moral panic uses a language of tolerance, non-partisanship, and fairness, when it's actually highly partisan, profitable, and consciously misleading. The book is beautifully written―cogent, clear, funny, smart. While critical of the demagoguery on the issue, Vivian is fair to his opposition, accurately representing their arguments, and discussing the relevant incidents in detail."

―Patricia Roberts-Miller, Independent Scholar and Professor Emeritus, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, University of Texas at Austin

"As someone who is fortunate to teach college students, I have long been concerned about the wide disconnect between a pervasive media narrative about speech and expression on campuses and the actual state of higher education. Vivian has explored this disconnect with care, showing that reports of a 'campus free speech crisis' traffic in a form of misinformation. Those of us who value freedom of expression should find his defense of student organizing and counter speech to be a welcome addition to discussions of expressive freedom on campus."

―Lara Schwartz, Director, American University Project on Civil Discourse, and coauthor of How to College: What to Know Before You Go (And When You're There)

"As the ginned up education panic intensifies across the nation, Bradford Vivian counters the propaganda with a calm and rational assessment of actually existing higher education practices. Vivian shows how the common tropes of the education panic do not accurately reflect the reality at American colleges and universities and how the controversies over free speech, diversity, and critical race theory are part of an authoritarian power grab to control higher education."

―Jennifer Mercieca, Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University, and author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump

“Vivian’s approach is straightforward, essentially examining the criticisms and asking ‘Is this accurate?’ . . . Campus Misinformation is thought-provoking and Vivian pulls no punches.”

—Ken Paulson, Director of the Free Speech Center

“Vivian traces how skirmishes at elite colleges get pumped into a vast right-wing outrage machine aimed squarely at higher education.”

The New Republic

“Vivian’s thought-provoking book makes a substantial contribution to ongoing discussions about freedom of speech both within and outside the realm of college campuses. . . . Highly recommended.”

—Choice Reviews

about the author

Bradford Vivian is Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and past Director of the Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State University. He is a recipient of the Class of 1933 Distinction in the Humanities Award (College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University).

His previous books include Commonplace Witnessing: Rhetorical Invention, Historical Remembrance, and Public Culture (OUP 2017) and Public Forgetting: The Rhetoric and Politics of Beginning Again (2010), which received the Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address awarded by the National Communication.

Contact for interview / media requests: bjv113@psu.edu

Penn State Faculty Page

Amazon Author Page

In the Media

Cited in “Special Issue: New and Forthcoming Books, Scholarly Articles,” FIRE, October 12, 2022

“The Real Free Speech Problem on Campus,” Democracy Works podcast (Penn State McCourtney Institute for Democracy), December 5, 2022

“Is Free Speech Under Threat on Campuses?,” Politics is Everything podcast (University of Virginia Center for Politics), December 13, 2022

Page 99 Test Blog, December 23, 2022

“Campus Misinformation: An Interview with Bradford Vivian,” Academe Blog, January 17, 2023

“Professor’s New Book Examines Free Speech Issues at College Campuses,” Penn State News, January 31, 2023

“As DeSantis Tries to Change Higher Ed, New Book Seeks to Debunk Claims of Indoctrination on Campuses,” The Free Speech Center (Middle Tennessee State University) February 3, 2023

“The Language of Campus Misinformation” (book excerpt), Arc Digital, February 24, 2023

“Today’s Best Arguments,” E-Pluribus, March 1, 2023

“Book Review: Campus Speech Suppression: ‘Crisis’ or ‘Canards’?",” The Free Speech Center (Middle Tennessee State University), March 9, 2023

Cited on “There Is No ‘Free Speech Crisis’ on Campus,” Is This Democracy podcast, March 10, 2023

Book of the Day selection: New Books Network, March 15, 2023

“Campus Misinformation and Academic Freedom (w/Dr. Brad Vivian),” re:verb podcast, March 17, 2023

Featured in the Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) 2023 “Education as Empowerment” collection

Paterno Fellows Podcast (Paterno Honors Program, College of the Liberal Arts, Penn State University), April 23, 2023

“Campus Misinformation with Bradford Vivian,” Think About it Podcast, Free Speech 69, May 2, 2023

Reviewed in “The Right’s Campus Culture War Machine,” Claire Potter, The New Republic, June 28, 2023

Quoted in “When Free Speech Collides With Academic Freedom,” John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, July 6, 2023

“GOP’s War On College,” The Majority Report, July 13, 2023

Quoted in “Subnational Authoritarianism and the Campaign to Control Higher Education,” Jennifer Ruth, American Association of University Professors, Fall 2023

Cited in “Progressives Should Never Tolerate Antisemitism,” Julian Zelizer, CNN, November 4, 2023

Quoted in “The Middle East War Reignites Tensions on American Campuses,” Patricia Neves, Medipart (France), December 18, 2023.

Quoted in “Republicans are Weaponizing Antisemitism to Take Down DEI,” Fabiola Cineas, Vox, December 21, 2023.

Featured in “Free Speech on College Campuses,” Choice Reviews.

Quoted in “DEI Backlash Has Made Companies Afraid of Republican Lawsuits,” Daniel Johnson, Black Enterprise, January 22, 2024.

“Campus Misinformation: An Interview with Dr. Bradford Vivian,” Politics Considered podcast, January 27, 2024.

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

“Saying That Students Embrace Censorship on College Campuses Is Incorrect—Here’s How to Discuss the Issue More Constructively,” The Conversation, June 5, 2023

“DEI Education in America Actually Dates Back to the 18th Century,’ The Washington Post, June 13, 2023 (included in the History News Network’s Roundup for June 16, 2023, of top opinion writing by historians and about history)