The DMN Academic and Intellectual Freedom Lecture Committee will be hosting the second panel in a series titled Conversations on Academic and Intellectual Freedom: Current Issues.

Moderator:

Mary E. Gallagher, Amy and Alan Lowenstein Professor of Democracy, Democratization, and Human Rights at the University of Michigan

Presenters:

“We are all Gang Chen”
Gang Chen, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering; Director, Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories, MIT

The Impact of U.S.-China Tensions on U.S. Science
Ruixue Jia, Associate professor of economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego

Where the Cameras Don’t Go: Federal Investigations and Border Questioning after the China Initiative
Ann Chih Lin, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Director, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies

Talk title TBA
Peter Zeidenberg, Attorney in Practice, Partner ArentFox Schiff

About the Event

Although the China Initiative has officially ended in 2022, the hostile climate has not dissipated and scientists of Chinese backgrounds still feel the pressure—especially as a proposed House spending bill wants to bring the initiative back. Put in place in 2018 under the Trump administration, the China Initiative led to the arrest, intimidation, and forced resignation of faculty on American University campuses. This panel discussion brings together a group of experts who will discuss their personal experiences, the legal dimensions, the costs of the initiative in the realm of scientific and technological advancements, the effects on prospective and current students, and diversity of campus.

Co-sponsors: Faculty Senate, Asian Languages and Cultures, College of Engineering, Ford School of Public Policy, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, Pramod Sangi Reddy Laboratory, Department of Political Science