The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has bestowed its Berkson Courageous Colleague Award on two philosophers. Those two philosophers are Mike Gregory and Charlie Kurth, both of Clemson University. After two faculty and a staff member at Clemson were fired for social media posts in the wake of the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, Professors Gregory and Kurth “sprang into action.” FIRE’s announcement of the award continues: Gregory wrote an op-ed criticizing the school for “a pattern of capitulation” in punishing faculty, while Kurth put a sign on his office door reading, “My employer is morally bankrupt.” The sign generated some attention online, including from one former South Carolina House representative who posted his disapproval on X. But Gregory and Kurth weren’t done. “We no longer know what speech will be tolerated or punished,” they co-wrote in an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Who Will Clemson Censor Next?” The result, they added, was simple: “self-censoring and silence.” Looking beyond Clemson at the larger wave of cancel culture in the wake of Kirk’s murder, they added, “Across these cases, universities appear less guided by consistent standards than by external outrage. Terms like ‘disruption,’ ‘misalignment,’ or ‘institutional values’ function as catch-alls, invoked only after political actors or social-media campaigns generate pressure. The result is a chilling effect in which speech protections hinge not on content but on who objects and how loudly.” FIRE representatives visited Clemson University earlier this month to present the award and host a public discussion with Professors Gregory and Kurth about free speech on campus. The Berkson Courageous Colleague award is named for Mark Berkson, a professor at Hamline University who spoke out in support of a colleague who was fired for showing images of Muhammad in her art history class.

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