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2025 ‘Censorship in the Sciences’ event vs. transgender people

In 2025, anti-transgender activists in academia and media participated in a conference called Censorship in the Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Anti-trans presenters included J. Michael Bailey, Jerry Coyne, Meghan Daum, Diana Fleischman, Carole Hooven, Lee Jussim, Greg Lukianoff, Wilfred Reilly, Michael Shermer, and Jesse Singal.

Conference proceedings will be published in anti-trans publication The Journal of Controversial Ideas.

Background

The event was held January 10-12, 2025 at USC Dornsife.

Supporters and organizations

Major conference sponsors

  • Heterodox Academy (HxA)
  • American Academy of Sciences & Letters (AASL)
  • The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University
  • University of Austin
  • USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

Donors

  • USC Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR)
  • Institute for Humane Studies
  • Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
  • Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA)
  • Benjamin W. Slivka
  • Cornell Free Speech Alliance
  • MIT Free Speech Alliance
  • Joel Peterson

Organizers

Organizing committee

  • Anna Krylov (USC)
  • Arie Kapteyn (USC, CESR)
  • Margaret Crable (USC Dornsife, Communication)
  • Michele Warnock (USC, CESR)
  • Lee Jussim (Rutgers)
  • Ivan Marinovic (Stanford)

Advisory board

  • Alexander Arnold (Heterodox Academy)
  • Cory Clark (UPenn)
  • Barry Honig (Columbia, AASL)
  • Luana Maroja (Williams)
  • Sean Stevens (FIRE)
  • Abigail Thompson (UC Davis, AFA)
  • Keith Whittington (Yale, AFA)

Explicitly anti-trans panels

Censorship Around Gender Research and Medicine

How ‘Soft’ Censorship In Media And Academia Helped Make The U.S.A. A Youth-Gender-Medicine Outlier

Speakers and panelists

  • Steven Ceci 
  • Tom Chang 
  • Cory Clark 
  • William Costello
  • Jerry Coyne
  • John Ioannidis 
  • Azadeh Khatibi 
  • Steven Koonin
  • Stavroula Kousta
  • Lawrence Krauss
  • Anna Krylov
  • Jacob Mackey / Jake Mackey
  • Bob Maranto 
  • Luana Maroja
  • John Matsusaka 
  • Jacob Mchangama 
  • Marcia McNutt
  • J.P. Messina
  • Dean Moosavi
  • Evan Morris
  • Howard Muncy – Academic Freedom Alliance
  • Natalya Murakhver 
  • Carl Neuss – Cornell Free Speech Alliance 
  • Ivan Oransky
  • Jonathan Rauch
  • Wilfred Reilly
  • Ilya Reviakine
  • Jennifer Richmond – Institute for Liberal Values 
  • Misha Teplitskiy
  • Abigail Thompson
  • John Tomasi
  • Scott Turner
  • Mike Veber 
  • Bill Von Hippel
  • Elizabeth Weiss
  • John Wilson
  • Nick Wolfinger

References

Kabbany, Jennifer (January 11, 2025). Censorship in the Sciences conference speakers call on peers to organize, defend free speech. The College Fix https://www.thecollegefix.com/censorship-in-the-sciences-conference-speakers-call-on-peers-to-organize-defend-free-speech/

Krylov, Anna (January 9, 2025). Schedule for Censorship in the Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. (PDF) https://drive.google.com/file/d/19YCeirdwU-izcY86aaNQ_4hm8znTaMML/view [archive]

Kabbany, Jennifer (December 3, 2024). Scholars to host interdisciplinary ‘Censorship in the Sciences’ conference. The College Fix https://www.thecollegefix.com/scholars-to-host-interdisciplinary-censorship-in-the-sciences-conference/

Resources

USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (dornsife.usc.edu/cesr)