MFSA's 2026 Annual Conference

Thursday, September 17, 2025 • Le Meridien Boston Cambridge 

The MIT Free Speech Alliance's fourth annual conference will be held in Cambridge, MA on Thursday, September 17, 2025. 

The proposed theme of the fourth annual MIT Free Speech Alliance conference is STEM In Crisis – Renewing Open Inquiry. The conference will examine forces that tend to narrow the range of exploration in STEM research and education, especially in universities, and will consider their causes, consequences, and possible remedies.

The conference will address science, technology, engineering, and mathematics nationally while using MIT, where appropriate, as an illustrative case. The aim is not to question standards of rigor, peer criticism, or institutional quality control, but to ask whether current norms, processes, and incentives can suppress dissent, reward conformity, and make broad open inquiry harder to sustain across the full range of STEM disciplines.

More information about speakers, panelists, and logistics for attendees will be made available in summer 2026, and will be posted to this website. Questions may be directed to MFSA Executive Director Peter Bonilla. 

Conference Location

MFSA's 2026 conference will be held at the Le Meridien Boston Cambridge hotel, adjacent to the MIT campus. 

The conference will run from roughly 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and breakfast and lunch will be served. 

More logistical information, including room block rates for out-of-town attendees, will be available this summer.