As the managing editor for Heterodox Academy (HxA), it is my pleasure to bring you the first issue of inquisitive, a new periodical designed to help us think deeper and more creatively about thought, expression, conflict, collaboration, and inquiry in higher education.

Why this, and why now?

Academics and their administrations are grappling as never before with threats to academic freedom, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity. We’ve got segments of the student population looking to shut down ideas they find intolerable; elected officials seeking to legislate their personal visions for colleges and universities; professional societies and accrediting bodies trying to tell us the “right way” to think about inquiry. All this in the midst of a media world that surveils, divides, and punishes.

At HxA, we’re concerned about all this. As we work to protect and promote open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement in higher ed, we monitor and respond to lack of due process with regard to academic freedom, legislation that might open or shut down inquiry and expression, and the use of ideological litmus tests.

In other words, we attend to what’s happening in practice. But we also recognize that we won’t be able to create a better, more intellectually supportive climate on campuses if we only deal with practice. To get to that better place, we also need to change hearts and minds. We need to remind each other why it matters that inquiry and expression remain free, why we should be concerned when politics overtake evidence—why most of us came to academic life in the first place.

This new periodical represents that part of our work. With generous support from the Mike & Sofia Segal Foundation, inquisitive takes us back to the intellectual plane, gives us a chance to pause to see things we might not otherwise, considers work that challenges and startles us into reconsideration, refocus, collaboration.

Along with regular features that flesh out context, each issue wraps a series of essays around a single theme with an eye toward seeing how people from varied perspectives and disciplines think about the sources and solutions to the problems we’re facing. In this first issue, with artwork produced and curated by graphic designer Janelle Delia, we bring you essays on the theme “the nerve.” Our contributors explore how human nature, federal funding systems, and ethics boards constrain scientific thought and expression. They consider whether teaching in America is really freer than pedagogy under the Chinese Communist Party. And they offer insight into what courage, curiosity, and collaboration mean on today’s campuses.

I hope you will find that this combination of offerings lights you up as it has me. If it does, please consider subscribing to inquisitive’s online and print editions, becoming an HxA member, and writing for future issues. Thank you.

Article Image by Janelle Delia