About the Chicago Forum
Our Mission
The Chicago Forum seeks to understand, practice, and advance free inquiry and expression as the foundation of higher education and of a healthy democracy. Through programming, education, training, and research, we foster a culture of serious intellectual engagement and rigorous contestation of ideas across fundamental differences at the University of Chicago, in higher education broadly, and in our society.
Our Values
We believe that free inquiry and expression are essential conditions for discovering truth, solving the world’s complex problems, and maintaining a healthy and robust democracy.
We maintain that neutrality of the University as an institution is necessary to sustain the extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry the University owes to its community of scholars. "The University is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic."
We view dissent and protest as integral to the University and to American life. The passionate expression of non-conforming ideas is both a cause and an effect of the intellectual climate that defines our University. At the same time, those engaged in dissent and protest have an obligation of mutual respect and constructive disagreement.
We reject the false dichotomy between free expression and inclusive community. Authentic academic freedom demands actively centering marginalized perspectives, recognizing that historical silencing has impoverished inquiry. We insist that academic freedom and inclusive community are mutually reinforcing commitments to building institutions where all members participate fully in the pursuit of knowledge.
Our Approach
Academic freedom and free expression face unprecedented threats within universities and throughout society; self-censorship and growing intolerance to diverse viewpoints suppress open inquiry and institutions entrusted with advancing knowledge lose the public credibility essential to addressing humanity's most urgent challenges.
Through programming, education, training, scholarship, and collaboration, the Chicago Forum strengthens the cultures and practices that sustain free expression in universities and other truth-seeking institutions, equipping leaders and practitioners to defend intellectual pluralism and restore public trust in expertise.
As a result, universities and knowledge institutions throughout society recover their capacity to pursue unflinching inquiry and model intellectual pluralism, enabling society to access the rigorous knowledge necessary to address pressing challenges while scholars and practitioners are freed to follow evidence and pursue difficult questions.