Research Diplomacy vs Individual Experiences of Repression: Politics of Repression – Strategies and Resistances in Scholarship

Cooperation in international higher education and research is an aspect of the foreign education and cultural policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Research diplomacy as a guiding concept describes the attempt to keep dialogue possible through cooperation in teaching and research even where other diplomatic channels threaten to close, as in reseach cooperation with authoritarian, repressive and totalitarian regimes.

At the same time, German universities and research funding institutions are strongly committed to supporting academics persecuted or threatened with persecution – precisely those who become victims of repressive regimes through their commitment to the freedom of teaching and research. The tensions thus outlined emerge in ruptures and polyphonies in foreign policy, research funding and international university cooperation.

Such ruptures and polyphonies will be the topic of a panel discussion concluding the SAR Speaker Series „Politics of Repression“. Representatives from the Federal Foreign Office, the German Rectors’ Conference, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the University of Göttingen will come together to exchange views, contrast institutional perspectives onthe topic and weigh up strategic guidelines and practical options for action.

• Marijke Wahlers, German Rectors’ Conference
• Frank Albrecht, Humboldt-Foundation
• Dr. Christian Hülshörster, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• Stefan Delfs, Federal Foreign Office
• Dr. Philipp Jeserich, The International Office, University of Göttingen

Link to the event