Dean Danielle M. Conway featured in ‘Academic Freedom in Polarized Times’ panel

CARLISLE, Pa.—Penn State Dickinson Law Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law Danielle M. Conway recently participated in a panel titled “Academic Freedom in Polarized Times: A Conversation with Three Law Deans.” The event was co-sponsored by Penn State Dickinson Law’s Antiracist Development Institute, where Conway serves as executive director. Other co-sponsors were Roger Williams University School of Law, City University of New York School of Law, Berkeley Law, and JURIST.

UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and University of San Francisco School of Law Dean Johanna Kalb joined Conway on the panel. Moderator Nicole P. Dyszlewski, assistant dean for curricular innovation and professor at Roger Williams University School of Law, led a discussion focused on challenges and strategies for maintaining academic freedom amid increasing state and federal actions threatening higher education autonomy.

The panel highlighted the necessity of community support, clear messaging, and strategic planning to protect academic freedom and diversity. Conway stressed the importance of pre-work with faculty and embracing innovative teaching methods.

“We have to know the bounds and the limits of academic freedom. We have to know the difference between academic freedom and freedom of expression, because those two things are very different,” said Conway.

Danielle M. Conway is the Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law. A leading expert in procurement law, entrepreneurship, and intellectual property law, Dean Conway joined Penn State Dickinson Law after serving for four years as dean of the University of Maine School of Law and 14 years on the faculty of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law. Dean Conway’s scholarly agenda and speeches have focused on, among other areas, advocating for public education and for actualizing the rights of marginalized groups and promoting systemic equity in legal education and the profession. Under her leadership, Penn State Dickinson Law’s Antiracist Development Institute (ADI) was created to facilitate the dismantling of structures that scaffold systemic racial inequality by using a systems design approach focused on implementing antiracist practices, processes, and policies throughout organizations.