In Honor of Chandler Davis, Clement Markert, and Mark Nickerson
The annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom is named for three U-M faculty members—Chandler Davis, Clement Markert, and Mark Nickerson—who in 1954 were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. All invoked constitutional rights and refused to answer questions about their political associations. The three were suspended from the University with subsequent hearings and committee actions resulting in the reinstatement of Markert, an assistant professor who eventually gained tenure, and the dismissal of Davis, an instructor, and Nickerson, a tenured associate professor.
CURRENT LECTURE: NOVEMBER 14th, 4:00- 5:30 P.M.
Join us for this year’s Davis, Markert and Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom with guest speaker Judith Butler. Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School and formerly the Maxine Elliot Chair in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. They have published a number of influential books including Undoing Gender (2004), The Force of Nonviolence 2020, and What World is This? A Pandemic Phenomenology (2022), and their most recent publication Who’s Afraid of Gender? (2024).
This event will take place on November 14th from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 100 Hutchins Hall. Virtual attendance is also available.