Jumbos love controversy.
Whether they communicate their messages through chalk on the Tisch patio or through campus publications, Tufts students don't generally worry about being silenced when they want to speak. But not all Americans can enjoy freedom of speech, and Lecturer Nan Levinson is using her voice to speak for them.
Levinson's book, "Outspoken," was published by the University of California Press in 2003 and came out in paperback this month. "Outspoken" covers the many sides of free speech through the stories of 20 people.
According to the University of California Press Web site, "Outspoken" includes stories from "a diplomat who disclosed secret information about government misconduct in Guatemala, a Puerto Rican journalist who risked going to prison to protect her sources, a high school teacher who discussed gays and lesbians in literature, a fireman who fought for his right to read 'Playboy' at work, and a former porn star who defended her performance piece as art."
A large portion of Levinson's research consisted of meeting with these and other free speech defenders. She traveled "all over, from San Juan to Southern California" to better understand the stories that so enthralled her, Levinson said.
Levinson's love of stories becomes clear within a few minutes of meeting her. It is this passion that shapes her book. "I felt if I was going to tell their stories, I had to absorb their lives in certain ways. It was limited - a weekend is clearly not any way to know someone intimately - but there is a strange intimacy," Levinson said.
Levinson has written on the subject of free speech and the First Amendment for many years, having held the position of U.S. correspondent for the British magazine, Index on Censorship, for eight years.
Levinson said she feels driven by a sort of responsibility to speak for those who have been censored.
"The reason why I think it mattered so much - [and still] matters - is because there are a lot of injustices in the world that I am very lucky not to be likely to have visited upon me," Levinson said. "I do think that there is a very human instinct; it makes us feel good to be able to say what we think ... and it pisses us off to have someone tell us we can't say what we want to."
Levinson responds honestly to her many honors, including being named a "free speech hero" by the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression and having her book praised publicly by Howard Zinn, an American historian and advocate of the notion that historical change is brought about by action of the masses.
"There are people much more heroic than I," she said. "It hasn't cost me anything to do this."
Levinson's love of stories and her experience as a journalist make it no surprise that she teaches creative writing and journalism at Tufts.
Her First Amendment experience has given Levinson some important advice to pass along to her students: It's most important "to pay attention not just when it's your ox that's being gored, because when our rights are whittled away - and they are whittled away in this country - we become used to it," she said.
Levinson said that people now are more likely to accept the status quo rather than to aggressively fight for better free speech rights. "I would argue that now, compared to, say, 15 years ago, what we are used to is appalling to me," she said. "Where we're starting our discussions from is so much diminished [from] 15 years ago when I was reporting for it."
Levinson pushed for today's generation to speak up. "It's often very hard to undo what's already been done; it may be easier to prevent bad things from happening," she said.
According to Levinson, prevention is a matter of confidence. "It's important to stand up for what you think, what you have thought through, as being right and necessary for a society you want to live in. A society that treats its members decently is what I'm thinking about," she said.
Levinson admitted that the current political climate has not fully met those treatment standards: when asked about last Thursday's House decision to approve the government's right to wire-tap private phone calls without acquiring a warrant, Levinson said, "It stinks, and you can quote me on that."
She went on to explain her thoughts on the government's free speech policy.
"This administration has been disastrous for civil liberties. Often, the response to feeling like you're losing control is to try to get more control, and I think the administration understands that it has been able to stay in power because of fear," Levinson said.
"It works very well: People who feel afraid are much more likely to put up with oppressive measures," she said.
