Academic freedom: empirical approaches

Description

Convenors

• Thibaud Boncourt (University Lyon 3, IUF & CRASSH)
• Gisèle Sapiro (CNRS-EHESS, Paris)

Speakers

• Thibaud Boncourt (University Lyon 3, IUF, CRASSH)
  ‘Research integrity policies and academic freedom: comparing France and the UK’
• Jo-Anne Dillabough (University of Cambridge)
  ‘Ambivalent freedoms, conservative revolutions and intellectuals in a populist age’
• Dina Kiwan (University of Birmingham)
  ‘Between forbidden and legitimated knowledge: transnational reflections from Lebanon, UAE, UK and US’
• Sylvain Laurens (EHESS, Paris)
  ‘Free speech vs autonomy of the scientific field: capture and transnational circulation of a liberal value’

Discussants

• Eva Hartmann (University of Cambridge)
• Gisèle Sapiro (CNRS-EHESS, Paris)

Summary

In recent times, academic freedom has been threatened by various processes. In so-called ‘illiberal’ regimes, entire fields of research and academic institutions are the target of bans or drastic restrictions. In more democratic contexts, some academics and academic activities are also exposed in various ways – via funding cuts, legal actions, smear campaigns, disinformation, new regulations, etc. While these phenomena often generate protests by academics themselves, and other actors (international organisations, NGOs, etc.), they are not the subject of much empirical research. By gathering scholars who engage in the production of original data on threats to academic freedom, this workshop will discuss some of the pressures that higher education institutions and academics are subjected to, and the outcomes of these pressures. The workshop will put special emphasis on the added of international comparison and transnational approaches to study these issues.

The workshop is organised in collaboration with the Higher Education, Research and Innovation Department of the French Embassy in London

---

If you have specific accessibility needs for this event please get in touch. We will do our best to accommodate any requests.

---

Supported by: