In collaboration with the Margaret Fuller Society, Transcendental Concord, and a range of public thinkers and scholars, we invite you to adopt and share texts that are being censored or threatened. This mutual aid teaching exchange invites cultural workers in secure regions or positions to carry forward the intellectual passions of their colleagues who face political repression. We also aim to build a supportive community across regions and professions to support colleagues working under such restrictions.
How it works:
- Someone will submit a text that they wish they could teach, share, purchase, or talk about but feel unable to do so due to political restrictions or pressure. You can submit a text at this link.
- A second participant will “adopt” one of these texts that they are able to share, and will share it. As we collect responses, they will become visible at this link. You can sign up to adopt a text at this link.
What counts as teaching? Do I have to be a professor?
- Many things count as teaching. You do not have to be a professor.
- Examples of teaching a text might include giving the text as a gift, checking it out from a public library, posting about it online, recommending it to a friend, or adding it to your website.
Who can submit?
- Anyone! Texts might be submitted by teachers, tour guides, librarians, public historians, or book club members.You can submit a text that you are unable to teach or a text that you know has been censored from the news or from colleagues.
Who can adopt?
- Also anyone! We particularly invite adopters who have the institutional power, financial security, or regional protections to exercise free inquiry and weather criticism, including volunteer cultural workers, faculty emerit, tenured teachers or faculty, and folks in regions and institutions with robust free speech protections.
Why would I want to adopt a text?
- This is a great chance to stretch your range of expertise, refresh your syllabus, or learn about new passions. It’s also good to have a concrete and manageable action you can take in the face of the stress created by threats to higher education.
Can I connect with the person who submitted/adopted this text?
- Yes! We have set up a private avenue to help submitters and adopters connect if they both express interest in doing so.
Can I make my teaching public or available to the person who submitted and their community?
- Great idea! You might consider sharing an op-ed, personal blog post, webinar, or informal conversation about your teaching experience or the text. We would love to help you brainstorm and organize this in collaboration with the submitter of your text!
What if I’m worried my institution/employer/government will be mad at me for submitting a text?
- You always have the option to submit anonymously. If you want to attach your name but remain private, we will protect your name from public circulation, sharing it only with your permission. All submissions to this project go to an email managed by leadership of the Margaret Fuller Society.
Does this help the students or audiences who are being restricted from accessing this text or ideas?
- Possibly. We don’t really know. By amplifying a text, we hope that it 1) will become or remain relevant to a discipline so that people who use the text in the future will be able to make a better case against its censorship and 2) will increase circulation of the text in non-academic spaces where audiences are more likely to encounter it, including in regions or institutions with political restrictions.
I have a critique, an idea about a better way to do this, or an idea about something you could do instead.
- Fantastic! We want feedback and need help. Please reach out at authorsocietycollaboration@gmail.com
We particularly want to acknowledge the work of the Just Teach One project by Duncan Faherty and Ed White, whose model of collaboration inspired this project.