Jeremy C. Young is the senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America. In this role, he advances PEN America’s advocacy for free expression in educational institutions, advocates against censorious legislation and politically-motivated efforts to ban books and curricular materials, and supports academic freedom in higher education and the freedom to read, learn, and teach in K-12 schools.Before coming to PEN America, Young served as the communications and marketing manager at the American Historical Association (AHA), the world’s largest professional association of historians, and directed the AHA’s Freedom to Learn Initiative combating legislative censorship in history classrooms. Previously, he was an assistant professor of history and director of the Institute of Politics and Public Affairs at Utah Tech University.Young holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Indiana University and is the author of The Age of Charisma: Leaders, Followers, and Emotions in American Society, 1870-1940 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). He was a 2021 New Leaders Council Fellow and a recipient of the Roger D. Bridges Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He serves on the board of directors of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit that advocates for increased oversight of homeschooling.
The Florida governor’s assault on academic freedom is just one of many draconian attempts to strip college educators of autonomy. This is a dangerous path for America.
Legal scholar Ilya Shapiro became a cause célèbre in the campus free-speech wars after a terrible tweet. But the university made a bad situation worse.
