Amna Khalid is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She specializes in modern South Asian history, the history of medicine and the global history of free expression.
Growing up under a series of military dictatorships, Amna has a strong interest in issues relating to censorship and free expression. Khalid was a Fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement during the 2022-2023 academic-year, along with her Carleton colleague Jeff Snyder. They focused on threats to academic freedom in Florida, the state at the epicenter of the conservative movement to encourage state intervention in public school classrooms. Based on interviews Khalid and Snyder conducted with Florida faculty members, they submitted an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs who are challenging the Stop WOKE Act.
Snyder and Khalid have given many public talks together on the topics of free expression, campus politics and the relationship between intellectual freedom and social justice. Campus visits where they can engage with students, faculty and administrators are of particular interest to them. They write regularly on threats to campus free expression from inside and outside academe--and from across the political spectrum.
Khalid is the author of multiple book chapters on the history of public health in nineteenth-century India, with an emphasis on the connections between Hindu pilgrimages and the spread of epidemics. Her essays and commentaries on free expression, academic freedom and censorship have appeared in outlets such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Conversation, Inside Higher Ed and the New Republic. She also hosts a podcast and accompanying blog called "Banished," which explores censorship in the past and present. Link: https://banished.substack.com/