Penn State Dickinson Law and School of International Affairs Dean Danielle M. Conway elected president of AALS, announces Annual Meeting theme

CARLISLE AND UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—Penn State Dickinson Law and School of International Affairs Dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law Danielle M. Conway was elected president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) on January 9 during the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. For the past year, she has served as president-elect of the organization, a nonprofit whose more than 200 member schools enroll most of the country’s law students and produce the majority of U.S. attorneys and judges.

As president of AALS, Conway will guide the association's direction, preside over Executive Committee meetings, implement policies, and work with other leaders in the legal academy to advance legal education's core values and address changes. She will serve an additional year on the Executive Committee when her presidential term concludes in 2027.

“I am honored to be entrusted with this position by my fellow deans in the legal academy, a group that includes many people I admire, have learned from, and continue to be inspired by,” said Conway. Her election marks the first time a dean from Penn State Dickinson Law or any Penn State academic leader has been elevated to an executive leadership position within AALS.

AALS presidents serve for one year. Each leader develops a theme for their term leading up to the Annual Meeting, and Conway has chosen “Emancipate. Academic. Freedom.” as her theme. She will lead the 2027 Annual Meeting, taking place January 6–10 in New York City.

“This is a pivotal moment for us all in the legal academy to come together in coalition around academic freedom,” said Conway. “We may disagree on many other things, but we must collectively uphold academic freedom. It is the right time for us all to land on this first principle in higher education and be in solidarity with that principle, whether I agree with your learned research agenda or you agree with mine.”

Conway says her theme will highlight higher education and law schools as sites of connection between values of intellectual inquiry and the public good, creation and advancement of knowledge, and the foundational centering of education as an essential part of the democratic project.

“If we in legal education can bring clarity and understanding of the role of academic freedom, then we are engaging in the democratic exercise. We are helping people understand the role of academic freedom and why that role is so important to society, not just to the individual whom we call the academic,” said Conway.

How academic freedom differs from freedom of expression

Conway has been considering academic freedom, and particularly how it differs from freedom of speech, for some time. This fall, she participated in two panels that sharpened the scope of her theme.

The first, “Academic Freedom in Polarized Times: A Conversation with Three Law Deans,” was co-sponsored by the Antiracist Development Institute at Penn State Dickinson Law, where Conway serves as executive director. She noted the importance of understanding the bounds and limits of academic freedom and the difference between academic freedom and freedom of expression.

She often cites Dean Emeritus Robert Post when discussing those distinctions, noting that the purpose of freedom of expression is to safeguard self-government, while the purpose of academic freedom is to protect education and advance knowledge.

During the second panel, “First Amendment & Expressive Speech,” hosted by the Penn State Office of Academic & Student Services, Conway addressed the unique purpose of academic freedom, noting it is a much narrower concept than freedom of expression as exhibited in the First Amendment.

“In the classroom, which is a teaching and learning environment, academic freedom has benefits, but it also has responsibilities,” said Conway. “The content presented in the classroom must be relevant. It cannot be irrelevant, toxic, or noxious content that could exclude people from the teaching and learning environment.”

Exploited in that way, academic freedom can impact students negatively. Conway knows this from personal experience.

Setting the guardrails of academic freedom

During her second year as an undergraduate at New York University, Conway enrolled in a money and banking course required for her finance degree. The professor, who identified as white and Brazilian, spent time during one class discussing “Ebonics,” a term which is the subject of linguistic controversy around African American Vernacular English that is rarely used today. “I was the only Black person in a class of 70, and it felt like everyone’s eyes were on me, whether they were or not, when he decided to veer far away from financial education,” said Conway. “I could not go back to that class. I had to try to learn the material myself. I failed the midterm because I could not return to class and learn alongside my peers. I felt demeaned. I felt singled out. I felt targeted.”

Better guardrails may have prevented Conway from experiencing that isolation. She notes that debating, defining, and imposing constraints on academic freedom play a critical role in preserving it. “Those in the legal academy may have different interpretations of whether we are complying with those guardrails. As academics, knowledge workers, and creators, we should be in conversation to push people to the guardrails or to bring them back when they seem to be moving far beyond them,” said Conway.

The “emancipate” portion of Conway’s theme invites the legal academy to consider whose freedom is being protected. “We need to think about academic freedom beyond positions, attaching it to the function of education and knowledge work and creation,” said Conway. “Exercise of academic freedom is not egalitarian. Certain people's access and opportunity to engage with academic freedom are greater than those afforded to others. Some voices in the academy are not being treated fairly in the exercise of academic freedom.”

Conway’s scholarship related to antiracism and her work with the ADI also contributed to her choice of theme. “One of the effects of the political polarization and emphasis on the culture wars that we have experienced since January is to miscommunicate to the public that there is something wrong with intellectual inquiry on subjects like equality, access, and opportunity,” said Conway. “‘Emancipate. Academic. Freedom.’ invokes antiracism because it deals with issues of equality in the pursuit of intellectual inquiry.”

An ‘amazing’ and ‘intrepid’ support system

Conway expressed appreciation for the “amazing” support of her colleagues at Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State University as she begins her presidency. She also recognized the encouragement and assistance offered by members of the AALS Deans Steering Committee and Executive Committee. “They are intrepid, and they display deep dedication to the cause of advancing democracy and the rule of law,” said Conway.

She looks forward to a year filled with challenges and opportunities as she travels to meetings and speaking engagements nationwide to discuss her theme. “The challenges include romantic notions of academic freedom and exclusivity in the exercise of the privilege, while the opportunities include launching or sustaining coalitions committed to transforming higher education through the rebuilding of trust, the reliance on facts and data, and the useful dissemination of knowledge for the public good,” said Conway. “I am excited to begin this year of intellectual inquiry.”