Mae Ngai on censorship in the academy

I think a huge challenge in Academia in general is the question of censorship and academic freedom. Fortunately, we're not faced with that here at Columbia. But you know, you look at what's happening in Florida, and it's very scary. And so I think the country is going to look very different in terms of where one can get an education--a real liberal arts education--and where one's going to get a very truncated and limited education based on the politics of a conservative government.

So I think even what you can publish, you know all these things are um uh I think we all face these things and even if we're not teaching in Florida, I think when people publish things, there's a a tendency to self-censor, to kind of shape what you write so it won't attract attention--we all want attention, but it won't provoke a reaction so I think that's another problem.