U of A Professor to Lecture on Free Speech

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Americans view free speech as an unalienable right, but speech wasn't protected until fairly recently.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Free speech is the most American of rights, handed down from day one by our Founding Fathers, right?

Wrong, according to law professor Mark Killenbeck: “Free speech is one of those apple pie and mom notions – we think we’ve always had it, but that’s totally untrue.” Until the 1960s, he added, “you were perfectly free to say what you wanted, but if the government didn’t like what you said, the government could punish you.”

Killenbeck will discuss the contested history of one of our most important rights, and its ongoing relevance today, in a free public lecture at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 7, in Gearhart Hall Auditorium, room 26. All are invited to attend, but seating is limited.

Killenback maintains that, ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court began to protect speech even as our society became more diverse and the number of voices in the public square began to multiply. New voices posed new challenges. The traditional assumption was that the cure for speech you disagree with is more speech. But does that work in an age where powerful words instill fear in some and spread what others regard as filth?  

Does baking wedding cakes count as free speech? Can we block the Ku Klux Klan from adopting a portion of Arkansas’ highways? Does the impulse to create “safe spaces” on campus foster resilience — or does it simply pander to the weak?

“There’s never an end to the legal tangles invoked by free speech,” Killenbeck said. “That’s why it’s so much fun.”

Signature Seminars Explore Cutting-Edge Topics

Killenbeck’s public lecture serves as a preview for his Honors College Signature Seminar, “Free Speech,” scheduled for fall 2018. The Signature Seminars, designated HNRC 4013H in the university’s Catalog of Studies, have addressed topics ranging from the evolutionary tales told by fossil teeth to the tensions between privacy and efficiency posed by the internet. Two other Signature Seminars will be offered next fall: “Bad Medicine,” taught by Tricia Starks, associate professor of history, and “Water Scarcity,” led by Eric Wailes, a Distinguished Professor who holds the L.C. Carter Endowed Chair in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.

Deans of each college may nominate professors to participate in this program, and those who are selected to teach will become Dean’s Fellows in the Honors College. Over time, the Honors College plans to bring in leading scholars from other institutions to teach some of these courses, as well.

Honors students must apply to participate, and those selected will be designated Dean’s Signature Scholars. The course applications are posted online on the Signature Seminars web page.

About Mark Killenbeck

Mark R. Killenbeck is a Distinguished Professor and holds the Wylie H. Davis endowed chair in the School of Law. He earned an Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Boston College and a Juris Doctor and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Nebraska. He has been a member of the law faculty at Arkansas since 1988 and teaches Constitutional Law, the First Amendment and American Constitutional History. He is the author of numerous books, chapters, articles and papers, with a special focus on federalism, American constitutional history, and affirmative action and diversity.

His articles have appeared in major national law journals, including the Supreme Court Review, Journal of Supreme Court History, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review and Hastings Law Journal. His book, M’Culloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation, published by the University Press of Kansas, was the first book-length treatment of that important case. His assessment of the Supreme Court’s 2003 affirmative action decisions, Affirmative Action and Diversity: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?, was published by the Educational Testing Service in their Policy Information Perspective series. He has also contributed chapters to a number of works, including The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions, the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States and Social Consciousness in Legal Decision Making: Psychological Perspectives. 

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and unites the university’s top undergraduate students and professors in a learning environment characterized by discovery, creativity and service. Each year the Honors College awards up to 90 freshman fellowships that provide $70,000 over four years, and more than $1 million in undergraduate research and study abroad grants. The Honors College is nationally recognized for the high caliber of students it admits and graduates. Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, and programs are offered in all disciplines, tailored to students’ academic interests, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged. Fifty percent of Honors College graduates have studied abroad – three times the national average – and one hundred percent of them have engaged in mentored research.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.