Academic Freedom in a Plural World: Global Critical Perspectives

This two half-day seminar will gather over 20 scholars from a variety of regions and disciplines to discuss current challenges to academic freedom, emphasizing transnational developments. Four panels will discuss the following themes (time is EDT / Montreal & New York time).

Download the program [.pdf] (finalized 2 June 2021)

The panels will take place on Zoom: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/85114784769

June 9

• Panel 1 (8:00-10:00) Imagining, Defending, Critiquing Academic Freedom will launch conference discussions by articulating different visions and conceptualizations of academic freedom.
• Panel 2 (10:15-12:00) Diversity and the Democratization of Academic Freedom will explore the need to increase diversity and to decolonize higher education, and to what extent academic freedom can belong to certain groups or communities.

June 10

• Panel 3 (10:00 -12:00) Between Authoritarianism and Populism: State Interference with Academic Freedom will discuss threats to academic freedom by states, both traditional authoritarian and new populists.
• Panel 4  (12:15-14:00) Emerging Threats and Responses will discuss challenges to academic freedom stemming from the corporatization of universities, private funding, ideological monitoring, as well as other emerging threats. It will also explore possible avenues to address these issues.

Description

Academic freedom seems like it has never been as much under threat at a time when its meaning has never been more open to contestation. Three phenomena, in particular, have contributed to shape its fortunes over the last few years.

1. A continued pattern of interference by states, both traditional authoritarian and new populists, along with monitoring of universities, requirements of advance notification of events including international participants, discriminatory denials of visas and invasive radicalization prevention programs.
2. Challenges to the professorate have begun to manifest themselves within the classroom as students demand content and pedagogy more reflective of society’s diversity.
3. A range of more diffuse forces have arguably constrained academic freedom. These include the continued effects of corporatization of universities, the influences of private funding, academic employment precarity, austerity measures amidst budget crises, and global rankings competition.

In that fraught context, the very meaning of academic freedom has become less clear. It can be invoked in coded ways and at counter-purpose to justify greater control of universities; it can sometimes appear as little more than a reflex invocation disconnected from its origin; and it suffers from ambiguities long associated with the notion of freedom.

if you have questions, kindly write to human.rights [at] mcgill.ca.