Global Research

Coming this fall, “9/11 in the Academic Community,” a Winner of the University of Toronto Film Festival, is a unique film that documents academia’s treatment of critical perspectives on 9/11 by exploring the taboo that shields the American government’s narrative from scholarly examination.

Through a powerful reflection on intellectual courage and the purpose of academia, the film aims at changing intellectual discourse on 9/11 and the War on Terror.

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As well as probing the repercussions several scholars have endured due to their investigation of 9/11, this documentary provides an analysis of impairments in professional inquiry, ranging from the failure to critically reflect on terms functioning as thought-stoppers (such as “conspiracy theory”) to the structural approach that restricts inquiry to the broad implications of 9/11 while shutting out inquiry into the events of the day itself.

Morton Brussel, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has stated:

“The main thesis of the film concerns the silence of the academic community on this vital issue. I think it is extremely important and very well produced.”

As 9/11 served as the rationale for the Global War on Terror, the expansion of the military and intelligence complex, the invasion of other countries in violation of international law, and the curtailing of civil liberties, the film provides an inspiring demonstration of intellectual courage that will cause many scholars to reflect on the academy’s role and strength to dismantle the war system.

As Alvin A. Lee, President Emeritus of McMaster University, has stated in his endorsement of the film: academics should “stand sufficiently outside society intellectually to see, understand, and interpret what is going on.”

The documentary, 9/11 in the Academic Community, has been earning the praise of several top academics. Its unique approach documents academia’s treatment of critical perspectives on 9/11, exploring the taboo that shields the American government’s narrative from scholarly examination.

The following endorsements the film recently received from notable professors furthers the documentary’s aims to change intellectual discourse on 9/11 and the War on Terror.

Academic freedom protects scholars who report inconvenient truths from the uninformed, but, as Adnan Zuberi reminds us, academic freedom is also the responsibility of scholars to pursue the truth. Roger W. Bowen, Professor of Political Science and President of the State University of New York at New Paltz:

I hope that this material will be made available to the wider international academic community in order to foster a wider, fact-based discussion among researchers and students alike.  Friedrich Steinhäusler, Professor of Physics at Salzburg University