6: Targeted Harassment of Faculty in the Post‑Truth Era

The post-truth era continues to unfold, and with it the hallmarks of science denial, rejection of experts, anti-intellectualism, the rise of social media as a source of news, and the blurring of truth and untruth. Together, these characteristics of post-truth produce a climate in which it’s unsurprising to see politicized attacks on higher education, especially when college and university campuses have come to represent experts and expertise, a training ground for scientists and journalists, and a place in which knowledge and facts are championed. That position is at odds with post-truth realities. Individual faculty can easily become entangled in these attacks, sometimes resulting in targeted harassment of faculty by members of the public. As Inside Higher Ed predicted back in 2017, “If it hasn’t happened to someone on your campus yet, it will” (Daniels & Stein).