Identity of Speakers
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Beverly Gage
Faculty/Staff
OtherBeverly Gage is a Professor of History & American Studies and Brady-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy at Yale University.
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Course Content
Other
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
Other
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
Beverly Gage, Professor of History & American Studies and Brady-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy at Yale University, resigned her role as head of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, saying that “the university failed to stand up for academic freedom amid inappropriate efforts by its donors to influence its curriculum and faculty hiring.” The Grand Strategy program was largely funded by two donors, Nicholas F. Brady, a former US treasury secretary under Presidents Ronald Regan and George H.W. Bush, and Charles B. Johnson, a businessman and one of the largest donors to Republican causes and candidates.
Prof. Gage, who was named head of the program in 2017, sought to expand the Grand Strategy curriculum to include domestic policy and grassroots social movements. She did not encounter any influence from the program donors until after a Yale professor of political science and humanities, Bryan Garsten, who also taught some Grand Strategy courses with Gage, published a New York Times op-ed entitled “How to Protect America from the Next Donald Trump.” This op-ed drew the ire of Brady. Four months after the publication of the op-ed, Prof. Gage resigned after the Yale University administration informed her that a new advisory board it was creating under previously ignored bylaws would be dominated by conservative figures of Brady and Johnson’s choosing, including Henry Kissinger.
In October, 2021, following the public disclosure of Prof. Gage’s resignation in The New York Times, the Yale Department of History issued a statement standing with Prof. Gage, stating, amongst other things, that “it is a longstanding principle of academic freedom that donors to the university do not control or shape the scholarship, curriculum, or classes that their donations support.” University President Peter Salovey also issued a statement noting that he had heard from many faculty members and alumni, and that “we must take great care to ensure that gifts we receive do not infringe on the academic freedom of our faculty.”
Gage continues to serve as a history professor at Yale.
