SAR Executive Director Robert Quinn featured in Uniavisen

SAR Executive Director Robert Quinn was interviewed by Uniavisen, the University of Copenhagen’s independent newspaper. The article is titled, “Scientists on the Run: They Said That I Was Spreading Propaganda and Homosexuality at the Department.”

Johanne Nedergaard reports on the Danish section of Scholars at Risk at the University of Copenhagen. Since the section’s establishment in 2016, the University of Copenhagen has helped several scholars at risk continue their research at the university while protecting their identities.

When asked what the higher education community can do to protect academic freedom, Robert says, “We are all small actors, but big solutions come from small actors working together. I think it’s important to have conversations about the mechanisms of discourse on campus. We have to ritualize the practices of academic freedom, so that the whole community knows why it matters, and what it is. So, when someone is being shouted down, is being disinvited, when someone is fired, that’s a violation of those principles. If we ritualize those, we develop a vocabulary together and some trust, so when something does happen, we can talk about it.”

Read the full article and interview here.