Between pressure and resilience: The academic world in contexts of illiberal politics
February 13
Monthly online seminar
13 February, 13 March, 03 April, 15 May 2025, 6 pm - 7.30 pm
Presentation
In recent years, the electoral successes of the extreme right in various European and international countries and the transformation of a pluralist political world into an ‘illiberal’ regime have left imprints on academic and intellectual life in these countries. Until a few years ago, the main concerns of European researchers were the political management of research resources and the role of private funding. Direct attacks were to be found elsewhere, in countries with a reputation for ‘authoritarianism’. In recent years, however, more overtly political pressure has been mounting in long-established democracies. These multiple sources of pressure and a polarised political debate - a situation that needs to be assessed individually in each country - have led to a narrowing of the space for academic debate and affected research and teaching practices, particularly in the humanities and social sciences.
In such a context, where the principles and practices at the foundation of the academic world are being put to the test, we feel it is important to take a close look at these pressure points on the academic world in the various countries, as well as the internal and external resistance strategies undertaken by the numerous actors to preserve the conditions for open and pluralist academic debate. We will be particularly interested in shedding light on the legal, regulatory and financial mechanisms and channels through which illiberal politics infiltrate the academic world, the way in which institutions are forced to adapt to new political realities, the role played by the media and social networks, and also the configurations that, in some cases, limit the effects of over-politicisation of academic debate. The comparison of national institutional and political contexts and their historical development are tools for avoiding hasty culturalist judgements and a certain tendency to over-interpretation, fuelled by a highly divided public debate.
Our reflections will take the form of a series of online seminars with contributions from colleagues in different countries, in French or English. The seminars will cover both countries where pressure has been exerted for many years and countries where political change and polarisation are introducing new tensions.
Organizer :Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po, Paris - Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin – CIERA, Paris – Institut historique allemand, Paris
Program:
13.02.2025 Artur Lipiński (Univ. Poznan)
13.03.2025 Ayşen Uysal (Univ. Dokuz Eylül in Izmir)
03.04.2025 Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (Univ. of Colorado/Boulder) [to be confirmed]
15.05.2025 Zsolt Boda (HUN-REN Center for Social Sciences, Budapest) and Balazs Trencsenyi (Central European University, Wien/Budapest) [to be confirmed].
Registration
Participation in this cycle is free, but registration is required. To obtain the zoom link, please fill in the registration form:
Image credit: Concetto Marchesi inaugurates the academic year 1943/1944 – Foto archivio CASREC (Università di Padova), scatola 5, n. 418 e 421. Su concessione del CASREC (Centro di Ateneo per la storia della Resistenza e dell’età contemporanea) - Università degli Studi di Padova
