Culture and the Constitution: The First Amendment and Curriculum Controversies

Video of program: https://mediaspace.bucknell.edu/media/1_h8l38ft2

Tues., April 18, 7 p.m., ELC Forum

Current debates over how best to educate young people on U.S. history and race, and on sex and gender, affect all levels of American education. They reflect cultural divisions on issues of social and personal identities. The First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech raises questions over rights of various constituencies in the debates—students, educators, parents, voters, taxpayers, cultural minorities, elected officials. Four speakers with experience in addressing the key issues offer different perspectives on constituencies and curriculum debates.

In-Person:

–Bion Bartning, founder of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), entrepreneur and investor.

–Prof. Ashley White, Education Department, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Inaugural Education Fellow for Equity and Opportunity with the NAACP; previously a teacher for 15 years.

By Zoom:

—Prof. Amy Brainer, Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the LGBTQ Studies Certificate, University of Michigan at Dearborn.

—Prof. Mark Regnerus, Sociology Department at University of Texas at Austin. Researcher on sexual behavior, family, marriage, and religion.

Hosted by the Bucknell Program for American Leadership, a Bucknell faculty and staff association dedicated to Bucknell’s mission statement of encouraging “different cultures and diverse perspectives” in the liberal arts tradition, with generous support from the Bucknell alumni of the Open Discourse Coalition.