David Spicer

David is a third-year PhD student in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy program at The University of Texas at Austin. An interdisciplinary scholar, David examines how speech rights are distributed and defended among different stakeholders on university campuses. His current research examines the historical context of the University of Chicago's principle of institutional neutrality and explores tensions between expressive rights of students and academic freedom of institutions and professors. Rather than philosophizing from abstract principles, David seeks to leverage empirical findings to inform theoretical perspectives of institutional neutrality, freedom of expression, and academic freedom.

Prior to UT Austin, David taught middle-school English in Southwest Louisiana where he grew up. As an undergraduate, he student taught in Cleveland and New York City and interned with DC Public Schools, the Louisiana Board of Regents, and the US Department of Education.

David holds a M.Ed. in Education Technology and Instructional Design from Western Governors University and a B.S. in Political Science with a minor in American Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and served as student body president. He hopes to attend law school after his PhD.