The challenges to academic freedom and university autonomy raise fundamental questions about the relationship between universities and society and, more specifically, the university and democracy.
- What is the historical link between democracy and the public university?
- What role do public universities play in sustaining democracy, and democracy – in sustaining public universities?
- What are the greatest threats to democracy and to public universities today?
- How can the influence of political and/or market authoritarianism on contemporary universities be challenged or resisted, and what role can democracy and academic freedom play in supporting such resistance?
- What is at stake in the erosion of university autonomy and freedom to dissent?
This workshop aims to explore key issues relating to the challenges facing higher education – the ‘university-democracy nexus’ – in what might be considered an age of democratic backsliding and increasing authoritarianism. In doing so it will also consider the extent to which universities can still be considered core democratic institutions and whether there are parallels in the way these institutions have been undermined by the policies, practices and impulses of authoritarian leaders.
The workshop brings together scholars from different disciplines (including higher education, politics, democracy studies, the social sciences and the humanities), who will share their disciplinary approaches and insights. Contributions will include theoretical and comparative as well as papers of an empirical nature based on specifical local or national case-studies. Some of the contributions of reflexive and autoethnographic kind will speak to the personal, experiential, and affective dimensions of these processes.
WORKSHOP PROGRAM
February 23, Friday
11:00 – 11:20
Welcome and opening speech
Cris Shore, Senior Joint Budapest Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU; Emeritus Professor, Goldsmiths University of London
11:20 – 12:00
Keynote lecture
Chair: Cris Shore, Senior Joint Budapest Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU; Emeritus Professor, Goldsmiths University of London
Higher Education and Democracy: Symbiotic Relationship or Accident of History?
Susan Wright, Professor, Co-director of Centre for Higher Education Futures (CHEF), Danish School of Education, Aarhus University
12:00 – 12:30
Introduction of speakers and participants
Lunch break
14:00 – 15:45
Panel 1: The ‘Democratic Mission’ of Higher Education.
Chair: Violetta Zentai, Professor, Department of Public Policy, CEU; Senior Research Fellow, Democracy Institute, CEU
14:00-14:30
The Geopolitics of Academic Freedom
Michael Ignatieff, Professor, History Department, CEU; Rector Emeritus of CEU (2016-2021)
14:30-14:55
Culture and Hegemony in Illiberal Hungary
Zsuzsanna Szelényi, Program Director, Democracy Institute Leadership Academy (DILA), CEU
Democracy in Question: Higher Education, Excellence and Displaced People in Europe
Prem Kumar Rajaram, Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, CEU; Between 2016-2022, Head of the Open Learning Initiative (OLIve)
Ian M. Cook, Editor-in-Chief, Allegra Lab; Between 2019-2023, Director of Studies at Open Learning Initiative (OLIve)
15:20-15:45
Marketization under Neoliberal Nationalism
Attila Melegh, Sociologist, Karl Polanyi Research Center for Global Social Studies
Coffee break
16:10 – 18:15
Panel 2: Academic Freedom and University Autonomy: Defending Democracy from Illiberalism, Populism, Capitalism, and War.
Chair: Antal Berkes, Junior Core Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU; Senior Lecturer, Liverpool Law School, University of Liverpool
16:10-16:35
Defending University Democracy from Capitalist Capture on the Intersection of Digital and Physical Infrastructure: Reflections from the UK
Mariya Ivancheva, Senior Lecturer, Strathclyde Institute of Education
16:35-17:00
Compradors of China’s Global Power: The Colonialization of Hungarian and Nicaraguan Academia through Anti-imperialist Tropes
Daniel Palm, Research Fellow, Democracy Institute, CEU; Project manager, Teaching Innovation and Digital Competence Development, University for Continuing Education Krems
The Characteristics of Illiberal Higher Education Policy-making: the Case of Hungary
Gergely Kováts, Associate professor, Institute of Strategy and Management, Corvinus University; Director, Center for International Higher Education Studies, Corvinus University
17:25-17:50
Exerting Self-Censorship through Disinformation in Informational Autocracies
Péter Krekó, Habilitated Associate Professor, Department of Social Psychology, ELTE PPK; Research Fellow, Democracy Institute, CEU; Non-resident fellow, GMT ECE program
17:50-18:15
Acceleration: Disempowering Collegial Decision-making in the Competitive University
Mikko Poutanen, Postdoctoral researcher, Tampere University, Finland
February 24, Saturday
10:00 – 10:50
Panel 3: Protecting Academic Freedom.
Chair: Ying Qian, Senior Core Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU; Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures, Columbia University
10:00-10:25
How Academic Freedom is Monitored - Overview of Methods and Procedures
Zoltán Rónay, Habilitated Associate Professor, Institute of Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, ELTE; Vice-Dean for Education and Head of Quality Management, Faculty of Education and Psychology, ELTE
10:25-10:50
The Ban of the MA in Gender Studies – Assault on Academic Autonomy and its Possible Contestation (online)
Erzsébet Barát, Visiting Professor, Department of Gender Studies, CEU; Lead researcher, Gender Studies ('TNT') Research group, University of Szeged
Coffee break
11:15-12:55
Panel 4: Democracy within the University (Roundtable)
Chair: Cris Shore, Senior Joint Budapest Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU; Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths University of London
Erzsébet Barát (online), Visiting Professor, Department of Gender Studies, CEU; Lead researcher, Gender Studies ('TNT') Research group, University of Szeged
Mariya Ivancheva, Senior Lecturer, Strathclyde Institute of Education
Mikko Poutanen, Postdoctoral researcher, Tampere University, Finland
Zoltán Rónay, Habilitated Associate Professor, Institute of Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, ELTE; Vice-Dean for Education and Head of Quality Management, Faculty of Education and Psychology, ELTE
Susan Wright, Professor, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University
12:55 – 13:00
Conclusion and closing remarks
Cris Shore, Senior Joint Budapest Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU; Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths University of London
Workshop convener:
Cris Shore
Senior Joint Budapest Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, CEU
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths University of London
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cris-Shore/publications
Series Co-Editor (with Susan Wright) Stanford University Press Series Anthropology of Policy
Symbiotic or Parasitic? Universities & Academic Capitalism Britain, Brexit and Euroscepticism Death of the Public University Academia’s Reputational Arms Race How the Big Four Got Big How Corrupt are Universities? Audit culture the reassembling of society The Shapeshifting Crown: Locating the State in Post-Colonial New Zealand, Australia, Canada & the UK Policy Worlds Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration Anthropology & Cultural Studies Corruption: Anthropological perspectives
Image credit:
The School of Athens (1509–1511). Fresco, 550 x 770 cm (18 x 25 ft). Raphael Rooms, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City; Raphael, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons