Authoritarians in the Academy

Authoritarians in the Academy

From Banished by Amna Khalid & Jeff Snyder

September 23, 2025 · 28 min

About this episode

Sarah McLaughlin discusses her book on the intersection of global censorship and free expression in the U.S. academic environment.

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to speak with Sarah McLaughlin about her new book , Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech . As a Senior Scholar at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression , Sarah is one of the leading experts on how global censorship intersects with free expression issues in the United States. In this episode of Banished, Sarah discusses her book’s key findings and offers her reflections on the nerve-wracking, topsy-turvy free speech climate in the United States today. Show Notes * Follow Sarah on twitter here , bluesky here * Here is the official Johns Hopkins Press link to Sarah’s book * On international student enrollment, see “International Students by the Numbers,” Inside Higher Ed * On Confucius Institutes, see Ethan Epstein, “How China Infiltrated U.S. Classrooms,” Politico Magazine, January 17, 2018 * On the Olympics poster controversy at George Washington University, see: * Amna’s interview with Badiucao, the poster’s artist * Jeff’s article on the dust-up in the Chronicle of Higher Education * this extraordinary open letter from the George…

People in this episode

Hosts: Jeff Snyder, Amna Khalid

Guest: Sarah McLaughlin

Topics covered

  • free speech
  • censorship
  • higher education
  • internationalization
  • academic freedom

Keywords

  • censorship
  • free speech
  • higher education
  • academic freedom
  • international students

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Johns Hopkins Press, Inside Higher Ed, Politico Magazine, George Washington University

Books & works: Authoritarians in the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech

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