University of Mississippi launches Freedom Studies minor
Ole Miss will offer a Freedom Studies minor to examine the American tradition of liberty.
The developer, Steven Skultety, revitalized the program to ‘increase viewpoint diversity’ and bolster a platform for free speech.
The University of Mississippi will be the first American university to offer a Freedom Studies minor.
Campus Reform has reported on the trend that demonstrates schools’ hostility to free speech, but Ole Miss’ new minor will delve into the philosophical inquiries around liberty.
Steven Skultety is heading up the program, having assumed the directorship of the Declaration of Independence Center. According to Mississippi media outlet Supertalk, the Center was founded in 2007 “before hitting a years-long state of stagnancy.”
Since 2021, Skultety has directed the center. He says he has spent two years developing programs that “will make sure that freedom, liberty, and independence gets studied in a careful and academic way.”
Those developments inspired Ole Miss to revive the Freedom Studies minor.
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Skultety told Supertalk that freedom “just ends up being something that we take for granted, and it just falls off the radar screen for a lot of people.”
He described his goals to “increase viewpoint diversity” and “[ensuring] that ideas about freedom and political issues retain a fair platform in academic discussion.”
Skultety’s professional background, as described in his profile on the Deparment of Philosophy and Religion’s website, earned his Doctorate in Philosophy from Northwestern University and landed a position as Associate Professor of Philosophy in 2012. In 2021, he offered to direct the Declaration of Independence Center and took the position.
The Declaration of Independence Center mission statement describes itself as a center “dedicated to the academic and open-minded exploration of these principles [of American liberty], and [it] exists to encourage exploration into the many facets of freedom.”
The article did not specify what classes the Freedom Studies minor requires.
As of this writing, Skultety and the University of Mississippi have not yet provided comment for Campus Reform. The article will be updated accordingly.
