Book bans are proliferating throughout the United States, with state initiatives removing certain titles from schools, libraries, bookstores, and performance spaces. But the prohibition of expression in this country has a much longer and more complicated history.  Institutional and industry gatekeepers have long upheld literary, artistic, and pedagogical canons to valorize certain works while suppressing many others. 

What legal and social arrangements connect these forms of censorship? How do book bans relate to efforts to define a cultural canon? A panel of experts discuss book bans, focusing on their history, their legal status, their politics, and their functions.

Hosted and produced by the Karsh Institute’s Sound Justice Lab