PDF Statement
Architectural historians advance public discourse on the built environment and promote informed discussion of the histories, meanings, and values it embodies. Often this involves challenging interpretations that are reductive or unfounded and calling attention to more expansive or alternative narratives through teaching, research, exhibitions, and public scholarship.
This responsibility cannot be fulfilled without the full protection of academic freedom. The American Association of University Professors has long
affirmed that “the common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.” At a moment when the very notion of truth is being obfuscated in political discourse, the work of scholars is being undercut by calls from both outside and inside the academic community to suppress certain points of view and to shield students from content they might find disagreeable. The chilling atmosphere threatening to stifle scholarly inquiry has especially serious consequences for those whose position in the academy is already precarious, including contingent or adjunct faculty, who account for an increasing share of the profession.
In view of these current pressures, the Board of Directors of SAH reaffirms our support for freedom of inquiry for both faculty and students, and our opposition to all forms of academic censorship, intimidation, and retaliation. We believe that an academic culture of robust interchange is vital to sustaining an intellectual and civic realm in which ideas, including dissenting ones, can flourish. We embrace SAH’s ongoing role as a forum for open debate on all matters concerning the history of the built environment.
Approved by the SAH Board of Directors on April 12, 2023.
