We in the American Studies Association are witnessing renewed attacks on interdisciplinary area studies – operationalizing proposals outlined in the Project 2025 playbook through growing attempts to control what faculty teach, including efforts to regulate syllabi, texts, and classroom discussions around issues of race, gender, sexuality, and “America.” These initiatives are working to place curricular authority directly in the hands of government officials, bypassing faculty governance, and implementing narrow understandings of “legitimate” discourse.
At present, these attacks are happening most acutely in states controlled by conservative State Houses, but we know they could shape higher education everywhere. The violation of academic freedom in Texas is especially egregious, placing politicians in charge of reviewing syllabi for “divisive” content, limiting students’ access to certain fields of study, and targeting faculty teaching in interdisciplinary humanities fields. Similar attacks have taken place in Florida, Indiana, and Iowa, to name just a few examples.
At the same time, we are seeing direct attacks on fields such as Black Studies, Latinx Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and American Studies. These include dismantling graduate programs, denying tenure, terminating faculty, consolidating departments, and closing programs. In addition, we are confronting the political capture of university governing boards, well-funded efforts to establish “civics education” centers designed to displace critical scholarship, proposed limits on federal funding for fields not tied to “career readiness,” and the possibility that politically influenced accreditation bodies be used to undermine or eliminate programs.
Although conservative attacks on the humanities have recurred periodically over the past several decades, the present moment is markedly different in scale and coordination. American Studies – alongside other interdisciplinary humanities fields such as Middle East Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Black Studies – is increasingly being used as a lever for broader ideological assaults on higher education and academic freedom. The field of American Studies itself is being used as such a wedge – adapting the strategy that conservative political actors have honed in weaponizing “antisemitism” to attack scholars, institutions, and higher education more broadly.
The American Studies Association will continue to support our members’ academic freedom and the importance of interdisciplinary humanities scholarship and research. ASA will convene member-meetings to share updates on what is happening on our campuses, and to share resources and strategies for survival. ASA will partner with allied academic associations and organizations to draft public statements, to share information, and to join lawsuits when appropriate.