If you are interested in exploring freedom of expression, civil discourse, and constructive conversation, we have the pre-conference workshop for you! It will be held from 9am – 12pm on Thursday 26 November, at the conference venue.
What is a Reasonable Question? A Workshop to Explore Academic Freedom and Facilitate Constructive Conversation in Universities
Academic freedom is a key feature of universities and has recently been subject to debate and scrutiny. For example, in New Zealand, The Education and Training Amendment Act of 2025 requires universities to “protect and promote academic freedom and freedom of expression”. Given conflicting views on what academic freedom and freedom of expression even look like in university settings, this is far from easy. This workshop explores constructive conversation, and in particular the willingness to ask and listen to “reasonable questions” as necessary conditions of these freedoms. But what makes a question reasonable? In this workshop, we lead participants in facilitated group exercises and discussions to collectively identify the features of “reasonableness”, underpinned by a commitment to genuine engagement with all viewpoints. By the end of the workshop, we hope to have a working definition of reasonable questions and strategies for how they, and constructive conversation more generally, can be encouraged in university settings.
Here is the link to the workshop on the conference website.
Here is the sign-up form.
Please let us know if you have any questions – we hope this will be an honest exploration of issues important to the core mission of universities.
All the best from our Auckland/Dunedin team,
Niki Harré, Jamin Halberstadt, JD Bowman and Elizaveta Zhuravleva