Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A conversation with Alexandra Lysova, Dennis Soron, Kevin Gosine, and Neil McLaughlin on the future of the academic left and open inquiry.
This session asks a blunt question: how did a tradition once associated with dissent, critique, and pluralism become a place where many feel that disagreement is risky?
Moderator Alexandra Lysova (Simon Fraser University) leads a candid conversation with three sociologists who sit on different ends of the political spectrum but share a concern about growing dogmatism on campus.
Together, they explore:
Whether the university’s problem is really “the left” or authoritarian factions within it
How identity politics and concept creep around harm feed calls for censorship
How to distinguish between genuine protection of the vulnerable and shutting down uncomfortable ideas
What a pluralistic, democratic left aligned with academic freedom might look like.
A conversation with Alexandra Lysova, Dennis Soron, Kevin Gosine, and Neil McLaughlin on the future of the academic left and open inquiry.
This session asks a blunt question: how did a tradition once associated with dissent, critique, and pluralism become a place where many feel that disagreement is risky?
Moderator Alexandra Lysova (Simon Fraser University) leads a candid conversation with three sociologists who sit on different ends of the political spectrum but share a concern about growing dogmatism on campus.
Together, they explore:
Whether the university’s problem is really “the left” or authoritarian factions within it
How identity politics and concept creep around harm feed calls for censorship
How to distinguish between genuine protection of the vulnerable and shutting down uncomfortable ideas
What a pluralistic, democratic left aligned with academic freedom might look like.
