Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowships
SAR warmly welcomes the 2026/27 cohort of Academic Freedom Fellows! Made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation and other valued partners, the Academic Freedom Workshop and Fellowship program provides a research stipend and a supportive professional community for researchers to develop and share work on academic freedom and/or related higher education values. The fellowship program is intended to foster a professional community of researchers dedicated to developing new research, formal written publications, new course offerings, workshops, webinars, or other significant end products.
Dareen Assaf
Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Dareen Assaf is a researcher and Honorary Visiting Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University’s SIRKE Institute, working on forced academic displacement, gender inequality in higher education, and at-risk academics. She holds a PhD in Education from Sheffield Hallam University, where her doctoral research examined women’s underrepresentation in Syrian university leadership during conflict. A former Cara-supported academic herself, she introduced the concepts of academic statelessness and displacement capital in the British Journal of Sociology of Education, describing the liminal position displaced scholars occupy between academic fields and the collective resources they build in response to institutional exclusion. She also works directly with refugee and asylum-seeking communities in Sheffield, work that continues to shape her research from the ground up. As a scholar with lived experience of forced academic displacement, she brings an insider perspective to questions of institutional recognition, exile, and academic belonging. Fluent in Arabic and English, her work is committed to research conducted with displaced communities rather than only about them.
Gendered Academic Statelessness: How Gender Shapes the Experience of Forced Academic Displacement in UK Higher Education | This project examines how gender shapes academic statelessness, the liminal condition in which displaced scholars are unable to fully activate their academic capital in either their origin or host institutions, a concept introduced in the researcher’s 2026 publication in the British Journal of Sociology of Education. While that research documented how UK higher education systematically fails to recognise displaced scholars’ prior credentials and experience, its sample size prevented systematic analysis of how gender compounds this exclusion. This project addresses that gap directly, asking whether women at-risk academics experience a qualitatively distinct form of institutional misrecognition, carrying both the humanitarian framing that strips displaced scholars of professional identity and the added burden of being read as insufficiently authoritative within institutions already resistant to women’s academic authority. The project also investigates whether displacement capital, the collective, informal resources at-risk academics build in response to institutional exclusion, develops differently for women or fails to develop at all. Methodologically, the project combines an exploratory survey with narrative interviews conducted with women at-risk academics in the UK, alongside a participatory element in which women at-risk academics interpret emerging findings alongside the researcher, responding directly to critiques of research that treats displaced scholars as subjects rather than intellectual collaborators. The project reframes gendered academic statelessness as a matter of academic freedom, arguing that when particular scholarly voices are structurally excluded from knowledge production, this constitutes a form of epistemic silencing that operates without overt censorship and largely without accountability.
Katherine S. Cho
Loyola University, United States
Katherine S. Cho, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in Higher Education and Chair of the Higher Education & International Education program at Loyola University, Chicago. Grounded in her experiences as a scholar, educator, administrator, advocate, and organizer, her research agenda centers on the duality of higher education’s potential to positively transform the campus towards equity and their reality of maintaining systems of oppression and manifesting harm. Her scholarship spans across campus organizing and activism; institutionalized disparities (of racism, genderism, coloniality); labor efforts; and flipping the narrative of “why aren’t students prepared for college” to “why aren’t colleges prepared for our students.” Prior to academia, she worked as a research analyst, educator, and within the nonprofit sector, which deeply informed her eventual pursuit of her Ph.D. in Education (in their Higher Education & Organizational Change program) from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Dilemmas of Deans: Democratic Protections, Academic Freedom, and Legislative Pressures | Since 2021, an onslaught of policies, initiatives, and executive orders have targeted higher education, including state proposals to eliminate tenure; federal proposals to modify certain curricular content; and bans against diversity, equity, and inclusion. In the wake of mounting financial divestment, attacks against higher education, policy proposals to modify or eliminate tenure, as well as increasing threats against academic freedom and censorship, higher education leaders are facing pressures on all sides. Pivotal to this conversation are academic deans. Academic deans are responsible for not only the concerns of faculty, curricula, programming, staff, and students, but also for upholding the directives and guidance from upper administration, accreditation, and senior administrators. This study explores the role of academic deans and how their roles and responsibilities intersect with academic freedom, while ensuring student success and safety, maintaining the fiscal health of their school/college, as well as often being a central stakeholder in addressing student concerns, faculty issues, campus protests, contentious tenure cases, and governance.
Kris Gulati
University of California, Berkeley, United States
Kris Gulati is a doctoral researcher in Economics currently at Berkeley Haas in the Data Innovation and Al Lab. His research lies at the intersection of strategy, innovation, organizational behavior, and the economics of science, with a particular focus on how institutions, social relationships, and emerging technologies shape the production and organization of knowledge.
His research combines large-scale administrative and bibliometric data, field experiments, and causal-inference methods to study academic freedom, political pressures on science, scientific funding, and artificial intelligence’s effects on work. His research on the consequences of speech sanctioning received the 2024 DRUID Steven Klepper Award for Best Young Scholar Paper and was nominated for the 2026 Strategic Management Society Best Ph.D. Student Paper Prize. His related work examines political discrimination in access to academic opportunities and the long-term effects of government disruption on scientific production. The latter is forthcoming in Research Policy.
The Professional Costs of Speech Sanctioning Events: Evidence from Academia | How do universities, colleagues, and scientific communities respond when a scholar is publicly sanctioned for speech? Although debates about academic freedom frequently focus on whether scholars may formally speak or conduct research, less is known about the professional consequences that follow after controversial expression occurs. This project exploits a novel dataset of speech-sanctioning events involving scholars in the United States and links these events to detailed publication, citation, collaboration, and institutional records. Using a staggered difference-in-differences research design, the study finds that sanctioned scholars subsequently publish approximately 20 percent fewer papers and receive 4.8 percent fewer citations to research produced before the controversy. Their close prior coauthors also experience a 12.5 percent decline in publication output, suggesting that the consequences extend beyond the focal scholar to scientific teams and professional networks. Citation declines are concentrated among prior coauthors and colleagues at the same institution and persist when the contested speech falls outside the scholar’s area of academic expertise. These patterns are consistent with professional distancing rather than a general reassessment of the quality of the scholar’s research. By identifying how reputational sanctions propagate through academic organizations and collaborative networks, the project broadens the study of academic freedom beyond formal censorship. It demonstrates how informal professional responses to speech can affect careers, collaboration, and the production and circulation of scientific knowledge.
Nabih Haddad
Michigan State University, United States
Dr. Nabih Haddad’s work explores the role of philanthropic foundations in nonprofit advocacy and engagement, as well as the impact of funders on higher education reform. His research areas span philanthropy, higher education, and nonprofit organizations. He received his Ph.D. at Michigan State University and has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and as a visiting fellow at Harvard University, researching graduate student success and high-net donors in higher education. Additionally, he served as the STEM Education Research and Development Lead at The Office of Minority Economic Impact (formerly The Office of Energy Justice and Equity) at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he led initiatives to support minority-serving institutions (MSIs). He has also collaborated on projects funded by various nonprofits and foundations, including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Dr. Haddad is currently an instructor in the Nonprofit Leadership, Global Cultures, and Social Enterprise Program within the Department of Religious Studies at Michigan State University.
Shifting the Center of Gravity: Advocacy Grantmaking, Policy Ecosystems, and Shared Governance | Contemporary philanthropy in U.S. higher education has undergone a profound change in its grantmaking practices toward the sector. Moving beyond traditional grantmaking areas directed to basic areas of research, fellowships, and capital investments, contemporary funders are broadening their portfolios to include ecosystem investments and policy-oriented grants. This has empowered an interconnected network of advocacy organizations and policy actors (think tanks, policy institutes, professional associations, evaluators, public agencies, research centers, and other reformers) and administrators aligned with the goal of getting more students to and through college, at faster rates, accelerating the adoption of credentialism and completion metrics.
The objective of this study, then, is to explore how external donors are reshaping the higher education policy landscape through formal and informal forces. By analyzing the structural influence of philanthropic foundations on U.S. higher education, this research broadens the focus beyond overt, politicized giving to investigate technocratic funders investing in efforts that are shifting the center of gravity away from shared governance and faculty toward external entities and central administrators. Generally, this study will explore the non-obvious ways in which major foundations seek to shape the structural conditions of the sector through high-leverage, policy-inspired giving and the implications for shared governance and faculty more generally.
Abigail M Hatcher
Independent
Abigail M Hatcher is a mixed-methods social scientist whose career focus on violence prevention informs her lens for pinpointing and defending against academic freedom
harms. Hatcher promotes women’s mental health around the time of pregnancy through
trials of social, clinical, and digital interventions. She holds honorary appointments at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). In
South Africa, Hatcher co-led violence prevention advocacy and contributed to maternal
health guidelines. As interim vice president of the North Carolina chapter of American
Association for University Professors she co-led campaigns to prevent tech-facilitated
surveillance and doxing, to reinstate faculty and staff leading disfavored work, and to
forestall dismantling of academic freedom policies. She earned a PhD in Public Health
from Wits and a Masters in Sociology from University of Cape Town, where she was a
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Her writing and illustration has featured in Science
Magazine, Raleigh News & Observer, The Hill, and Philadelphia Inquirer.
Attacks to academic freedom in a national, longitudinal survey of scientists at
risk | When National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated grants of more than 2,400
scientists, a federal court ruled these terminations unlawful and reinstated $897 million
in scientific funding. Despite the court action, federal funding agencies in the United
States continue to delay funding or prematurely end scientific grants. This project
follows “scientists at risk” in a national survey of 942 investigators. The work has
illustrated disproportionate impact of grant terminations on women, LGBTQ researchers
and scientists who are black, indigenous, or people of color. A follow-up survey will
characterize attacks to academic freedom in the year after an NIH grant
termination. The approach will extend the Free to Think methodology (which already
measures physical harm, imprisonment, limitation to travel, and disciplinary actions) to
include tech-facilitated violence, threat or exposure to physical violence, explicit
censorship, self-censorship, and supportive institutional responses. These findings may
inform future litigation or policy to backstop academic freedom in the sciences.
Paula Aldana Lucero
Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
Paula Aldana Lucero holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology, and a PhD in Geography. Her research focuses on socio-environmental conflicts, agrochemical regulation, and the relationships between knowledge, territory, and power in Latin America. Drawing on ethnographic research in Buenos Aires province, she examines how disputes over scientific knowledge produce forms of censorship, territorial epistemic harm, and inequality in extractive contexts.
Interrupted Knowledge: Territorial Epistemic Harm and Scientific Censorship in Argentina under Right-Wing Extractivism (2023–2026) | This project examines what happens when critical scientific knowledge about territories is censored, defunded, or deliberately interrupted. The project develops the concept of territorial epistemic harm to analyze how rural and peri-urban communities lose access to the knowledge they need to defend themselves against socio-environmental risks.
During 2023-2026 in Argentina under the Milei government, this harm has taken concrete forms: water analyses never communicated due to fear of reprisals; researchers from INTA and CONICET who severed territorial ties due to defunding; and the tacit prohibition of keywords such as “climate change,” “agrochemicals,” and “agroecology” that prevents certain questions from being formulated at all.
Unlike academic freedom debates that center on persecuted researchers or dismantled institutions, this project shifts attention toward a frequently invisible victim: communities deprived of knowledge that could not be produced or circulated. Through multi-sited ethnography, the project conceptualizes territorial epistemic harm as an analytical category, expanding frameworks on academic freedom toward its collective and territorial dimensions.
Ei Phyoe Maung
Eötvös Loránd University
Dr. Ei Phyoe Maung is a Burmese educational researcher and learning and development professional. She holds a PhD in Educational Science from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. She was a teacher educator at a teacher training university in Myanmar until 2021 and is now based in Hungary, where she continues her research and professional work. Her work has been shaped by experiences at Central European University and UNICEF’s Global Learning Centre at the Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) in Hungary, the Social Scientists’ Association in Sri Lanka, and the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). Her research focuses on academic freedom, higher education, educational technology, motivation in language teaching and learning, forced migration, and education in humanitarian and crisis-affected contexts. She believes that research and professional learning should serve educators and learners, helping to protect academic freedom and sustain meaningful education in communities affected by conflict, displacement, and crisis.
Teaching and Researching Beyond Authoritarian Suppression in the Context of Contemporary Myanmar Higher Education | Following the 2021 military coup, Myanmar’s higher education sector was deeply affected, and many university teachers were forced into displacement. Despite these circumstances, many have continued teaching, research, and knowledge exchange through alternative higher education initiatives beyond conventional university settings. While these initiatives have become an important part of contemporary Myanmar higher education, little is known about how academic freedom is experienced and practiced within these emerging academic spaces. This project explores how Myanmar university teachers sustain teaching, research, and academic freedom through alternative higher education initiatives in the context of contemporary Myanmar higher education. It examines academic freedom not only as a legal or institutional principle, but also as something practiced through everyday teaching, research, knowledge production, and knowledge exchange. In doing so, the project considers how exiled university teachers continue to uphold higher education core values through their academic work, even under circumstances of displacement and uncertainty. Although the study focuses on the Myanmar context, it may also offer insights for higher education systems experiencing conflict, displacement, and restrictions on academic freedom.
Milad Mohebali
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States
Milad Mohebali is an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he teaches courses on higher education and P-20 leadership and policy. Originally from Iran, his research interrogates precarity, dialogue, and relations of knowledge and power in higher education in the United States and internationally. He was a 2025-2026 fellow with the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, investigating the social actors assembled around viewpoint diversity discourse in higher education and its relation to academic freedom in the United States. He has also served as a Faculty-in-Residence and received Excellence in International Research recognition from the ACPA Commission for Global Dimensions of Student Development. He is currently a member-at-large with the ASHE Council for International Higher Education. His research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Globalisation, Education, and Societies, Educational Researcher, and Journal of College Student Development.
An Investigation of the Academic Freedom of International Graduate Students and Scholars in the United States | This research study investigates the academic freedom of international graduate students and scholars in the United States through a sequential exploratory mixed methods study. This work examines how international graduate students and scholars understand and evaluate their academic freedom, and explores group differences in these experiences. International students and scholars are vital contributors to higher education, enriching campus internationalization, global citizenship, intercultural development, research partnerships, and economic innovation, yet their understanding and exercise of academic freedom has rarely been studied. As academic freedom protections have declined in recent years in the United States, this population has faced compounding risks and challenges from discriminatory institutional and immigration policies. The study aims to inform policies and practices affecting international graduate students and scholars, with implications for higher education internationalization and scientific collaboration. By centering the lived knowledge and standpoints of this population, it moves beyond methodological nationalism in academic freedom research, illuminating barriers, support structures, and varied meanings of academic freedom in a society where rights are not equally distributed.
Sofya Smyslova
University of Cambridge, England
Sofya Smyslova is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. She previously completed an MPhil in Education at the University of Cambridge (2021) and holds an MS in Innovation Management from the Higher School of Economics (2018). Her current research focuses on relations between the future, education and crisis, particularly in contexts of limited academic freedom and exile. She examines higher education institutions through the lens of critical futures studies and leads a range of projects exploring alternative possibilities for universities. She is a Fellow in the 2026 cohort of the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners programme (School of International Futures, UK). Her work has been published in Globalisation, Societies and Education and the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, and is forthcoming in Studies in Higher Education and Edward Elgar Publishing.
Pedagogies of Academic Freedom in Exile: How Higher Education Projects Sustain Scholarly Agency Beyond the University | Academic freedom is most often understood institutionally: as a matter of university autonomy, legal protection, employment status, or formal rights to teach, research, and disseminate knowledge. This project, however, proposes a different perspective by examining academic freedom as a pedagogical practice that takes shape under conditions of heightened precarity and marginality, specifically in exile. The project focuses on displaced academics who may relocate to formally “free” academic systems while still experiencing precarious employment, epistemic misrecognition, self-censorship, and a rupture with the intellectual communities, languages, students, and cultural contexts through which their academic practice had previously been lived. It asks how academic freedom is lived, practised, and understood among such scholars: academics who do not only raise questions of academic freedom within their host institutions, but also create alternative academic spaces so-called “third spaces” (Axyonova et al, 2022) – in which teaching, learning, and knowledge production can continue otherwise. Through which teaching and pedagogical practices is such academic freedom expressed in these dimensions? What kinds of pedagogical activity does it require? Drawing on data collected across several higher education projects created in exile, this project analyses academic freedom as a lived educational experience co-constructed by teachers and students. It asks: how do academics in exile pedagogically sustain, rework, and expand academic freedom when they are displaced from their home institutions and excluded from the ordinary infrastructures of academic life? The project addresses an existing gap in academic freedom research by examining how curriculum design, seminar dialogue, reading groups, public lectures, learning diaries, collaborative interpretation, and practices of care become concrete sites through which scholars reclaim academic agency “on their own terms” whether within host institutions or by creating alternative structures for knowledge production and teaching.
Nkasi Wodu
University of Massachusetts, United States
Nkasi Wodu is a scholar of global governance whose research examines how changing configurations of authority shape governance, conflict, human security, and democratic participation. His work investigates how formal and informal institutions produce political order, distribute authority, and shape the everyday practice of governance in contexts of fragility and democratic change. Alongside his academic work, he has led and advised peacebuilding, governance, and democracy initiatives across Africa, partnering with governments, multilateral organizations, civil society organizations, and the private sector to strengthen democratic governance, manage conflict, and advance locally grounded approaches to peacebuilding. He is a Fellow with the Center for Peace, Democracy & Development and the Center for Governance & Sustainability at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and a Senior Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship. He serves on the Steering Committee of Harvard University’s Atrocity Prevention Lab. He holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance and Human Security and an M.A. in Global Governance and Human Security from the University of Massachusetts Boston, an M.Sc. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Port Harcourt, and an LL.B. in Law from Rivers State University.
Managed Academic Freedom: Dominant-Party Rule and the Restructuring of Universities in Nigeria | Universities play a vital role in advancing knowledge, fostering critical debate, and holding governments accountable. However, in many democracies experiencing political backsliding, academic freedom is increasingly constrained through subtle institutional mechanisms rather than overt repression. This project examines how dominant-party rule in Nigeria reshapes academic freedom by influencing university governance, academic careers, access to research funding, and the boundaries of public discourse. It develops the concept of managed academic freedom to explain how formal protections for academic freedom may remain in place while political and administrative pressures narrow the space for intellectual dissent. Focusing on four interconnected domains institutional authority, professional advancement, material resources, and public discourse- the project combines document analysis and qualitative interviews to examine how universities are governed in politically constrained environments and to provide insights for scholars, university leaders, and organizations working to protect academic freedom. Although grounded in Nigeria, the project offers a broader framework for understanding how dominant party systems in illiberal democracies increasingly rely on indirect institutional controls rather than overt repression to narrow academic freedom.
Dwayne Kwaysee Wright
The George Washington University, United States
Dwayne Kwaysee Wright is Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development. His scholarship and advocacy advance educational access and equity for historically marginalized students by drawing on Critical Race Theory, sociocultural theory, and critical pedagogy. His research spans higher education policy, education law, First Amendment jurisprudence, race-conscious admissions, and the relationship between identity and learning. A first-generation college graduate originally from Trinidad and Tobago, he holds a PhD in Higher Education, a Juris Doctor, and a Master of Education from Pennsylvania State University, as well as an MBA and a graduate certificate in non-profit management from The George Washington University. He also practices immigration law, focusing on family and student visas.
The Praxis of Protest: Constructing a Theory of Academic Freedom During the Campus Encampments | At least in theory, Academic freedom continues to hold a revered position within the American higher education system. Nevertheless, the Spring 2024 pro-Palestinian campus encampments highlighted the precarious ambiguity surrounding its legal boundaries. This project examines the 2024 campus encampments as sites where academic freedom was not only debated but actively practiced, contested, and redefined. It asks how faculty collective action, institutional responses, and competing claims about safety, speech, and scholarly inquiry exposed the limits of conventional accounts of academic freedom. The study analyzes the encampments (and its counter protest) as a form of intellectual and civic praxis in which participants produced knowledge, challenged university authority, and tested the boundaries between demonstration, teaching, and learning. Particular attention is given to how professional disciplinary rules, policing, and administrative decision-making shaped the protection of speech, the treatment of dissent as disruption, and the recognition of forms of political expression as educational. By situating the contemporary encampments within longer traditions of Academic expression/activism and political debate, the project seeks to develop a theory of academic freedom grounded within the experiences of faculty- examining protest as a consequential practice of knowledge production. Its findings aim to inform institutional policy and broader debates about how universities can protect open inquiry while responding equitably to conflict and dissent.
ASMA HEDI NAIRI
Sabancı University, Türkiye
Asma Hedi Nairi is a scholar and human rights researcher specializing in human rights, digital political discourse, and migration in the MENA region. She holds a PhD in International Relations and is currently a Visiting Instructor at Sabancı University, where she teaches on humanitarian mechanisms, INGOs, and critical communication. Alongside her academic work, she serves as MENA Regional Manager at the International Detention Coalition, leading regional advocacy on migration governance, detention, and rights-based alternatives. Her research bridges critical theory, digital ethnography, and discourse analysis, with particular attention to authoritarianism, populist repression, and the politics of knowledge production. She has published peer-reviewed work on racialized media discourse, digital satire, and democratic backsliding in Tunisia, including in The Journal of North African Studies and Communication Research and Practice. As a scholar with lived experience of state repression, she brings a grounded, decolonial perspective to questions of academic silencing, exile, and intellectual risk. Fluent in Arabic, French, English, and Turkish, her work is committed to producing engaged, accessible scholarship that connects academic inquiry with struggles for justice.
Silencing the Republic of Thought: Democratic Backsliding and Academic Freedom in Tunisia | This project examines the erosion of academic freedom in Tunisia amid democratic backsliding and the rise of populist authoritarianism following July 25, 2021. While Tunisia was long framed as the sole democratic “success story” of the Arab uprisings, recent years have witnessed intensified repression targeting civil society, journalists, migrants, and scholars and in particular those working on politically sensitive issues such as racism, migration, gender, and state violence. Academic freedom, rather than being formally abolished, has been hollowed out through judicial harassment, delegitimizing populist rhetoric, institutional pressure, and the normalization of fear and self-censorship. Grounded in both empirical research and the lived experience of academic researchers and scholars working in/on Tunisia, the project adopts a longitudinal approach spanning three political phases: the final years of the Ben Ali regime, the post-2011 democratic transition, and the current period of authoritarian consolidation. Methodologically, it combines quantitative analysis of social science and humanities publications (2005–2025) with in-depth interviews with scholars based in Tunisia, in exile, and in the diaspora, as well as editors and academic gatekeepers. By tracing how research agendas, publication patterns, and intellectual participation shift across political regimes, the project reveals how populist authoritarianism transforms knowledge into a contested terrain, casting critical scholars as “traitors” or “foreign agents.” More broadly, it positions Tunisia as both a case study and a warning: illustrating how fragile academic freedom becomes when nationalism, moral panic, and state power converge. The project aims to contribute to global debates on academic freedom by centering Global South experiences and foregrounding the affective, epistemic, and political costs of silencing critical thought.
CAROLYNE BUYA
Technical University of Kenya, Kenya
Carolyne S. Mudeje Buya has a PhD from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She is currently a full-time Lecturer in the Department of Liberal, Development and International Studies at the Technical University of Kenya. She is a philosopher and researcher whose work explores epistemology, ethics, gender, and African philosophy. Her research interest and publications focus on knowledge systems, individual development, moral responsibility, and gendered leadership in higher education. Some of her recent works include chapters in African Women’s Liberating Philosophies, Theologies, and Ethics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) and African Culture in the 21st Century (CUEA Press, 2024).
Gendered Dimensions of Academic Freedom: A Comparative Study of Faith-Based and Secular Universities in Kenya | The project examines how gender and institutional culture shape the practice of academic freedom in Kenyan universities. While academic freedom is widely upheld as a cornerstone of intellectual life and a marker of institutional autonomy, its realization can vary depending on context. In many cases, its exercise is mediated by implicit gender hierarchies, social expectations, and the unspoken norms that govern academic communities. These cultural and structural factors can influence who speaks, what can be researched, and which perspectives are legitimized within a learning institution. Consequently, academic freedom is not merely a legal or policy principle but a lived experience that is shaped by power relations and institutional ethos. Situating gender at the core of the analysis, the project demonstrates how women scholars negotiate academic environments structured by intersecting systems of authority, moral regulation, and institutional culture. It examines how these forces collectively shape the scope and character of women’s intellectual agency, influencing what forms of inquiry are legitimized and whose voices are granted space within the university context.Through a comparative study of faith-based and secular universities, the research explores how women academics perceive, experience, and negotiate their scholarly autonomy within different moral and administrative environments. The project seeks to uncover how governance systems, gender norms, and institutional values either constrain or enhance academic freedom. The findings will provide empirical insights into how gendered power relations influence higher education and will generate policy recommendations aimed at strengthening inclusive academic governance. On the whole, the project contributes to broader conversations on gender equity and academic freedom in African universities, advancing the vision of higher education as a space for intellectual independence, justice, and social transformation.
CHRIS MILLORA
University of London, United Kingdom
Chris Millora is Lecturer and Assistant Professor in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he also leads the MA in Social Justice in Education programme. His research explores informal learning and literacy in and through youth social action, including volunteering and activism, with a particular focus on the Philippines. His most recent project, Literacies of Dissent (2022–2025), funded by The Leverhulme Trust, was a youth-led participatory action research project examining how youth activists learn and create knowledge through social movements in the Philippines and Chile. Chris was lead researcher of the UN’s State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (2022) and the Global Campaign for Education’s Global Report on Youth and Student Organising during COVID-19 (2022). He also co-led SAIH-funded studies on the criminalisation of student dissent (2021) and university protection of student activists (ongoing). Chris holds a PhD in Education and International Development from the University of East Anglia UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation.
The Intellectual Lives of Student Activists: knowledge production in academic freedom movements in the Philippines and Thailand | Student activists in the Philippines and Thailand continue to experience what can be described as epistemological violence: powerholders portraying them as “inexperienced” or “non-knowledgeable,” urging them to “listen” rather than “speak out,” and, therefore, obscuring the intellectual labour involved in movement building. Building on my previous research and through interviews with youth and student activists and relevant stakeholders in the Philippines and Thailand, this project aims to understand the ‘intellectual lives’ of student activists: how do students (re)produce knowledge in, through, and across their movements towards academic freedom? How is this knowledge taken up, adapted, ignored, or contested within existing power dynamics by key stakeholders and powerholders in education? By focusing on the politics of knowledge production within student movements, this project reframes young people as thought leaders, radical thinkers, and serious visionaries. Making visible the intellectual lives of youth activists positions activism as integral – and not a distraction – to a vibrant educational and civic life. Findings will be disseminated through an academic article, a special issue proposal, and a webinar, aiming to inform more effective strategies for protecting academic freedom and providing policymakers and institutions with evidence on how to meaningfully engage student knowledge in decision-making.
COSTAS GOUSIS
University of Crete, Greece
Costas Gousis is a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH) in Athens and an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Crete, where he teaches courses on the sociology of migration. He completed his PhD at the University of Roehampton, London, in 2021 as an AHRC Techne-funded researcher, focusing on migrant activism in Greece. He has worked as a lawyer specialising in human rights and refugee law and has coordinated or participated in research projects at Panteion University, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Eteron – Institute for Research and Social Change, and RCH. Since May 2024, he has served on the Management Committee of the COST Action Data Matters: Sociotechnical Challenges of European Migration and Border Controls (DATAMIG). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic League for Human Rights, where he currently serves as General Secretary.
From Asylum to Surveillance: Greek Universities as a Case Study in Global Challenges to Academic Freedom | This project investigates how recent legislative changes affecting higher education in Greece, while presented as measures to “protect academic freedom,” have in practice undermined it through policing, surveillance, and disciplinary mechanisms. The study combines legal analysis with empirical research. A review of relevant legislation, parliamentary debates, and media narratives will be complemented by interviews with student representatives, faculty, researchers, and staff, aiming to document the impact of authoritarian policies on everyday academic life. Particular attention will be given to the abolition of university asylum, the criminalization of collective action, and the restriction of union freedoms. The project highlights the intersection of authoritarian measures and neoliberal reforms and examines forms of collective resistance that defend and reinterpret the democratic legacy of public universities today. By linking law, politics, and lived experience, this study positions Greece as a case study in the global challenges currently confronting academic freedom and the democratic functioning of universities.
OLGA CERAN
Leiden University, Netherlands
Olga Ceran is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and a
member of the AFITE project, “The EU Fundamental Right to ‘Freedom of the Arts and
Sciences’: Exploring the Limits on the Commercialisation of Academia”, led by Dr Vasiliki
Kosta. Her current research examines how academic freedom is protected across Europe,
with a particular focus on Article 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European
Union (‘freedom of the arts and sciences’). Olga’s broader interests include comparative law, European human rights, and different approaches to the study of Europeanisation. She holds a PhD in Law and an LLM in Comparative, European and International Laws from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) as well as a Masters degree in law from the University of Wrocław (Poland).
The Linguistic Dimension of Academic Freedom: A Human Rights Analysis of Higher
Education in Europe | Language policies in European higher education have become increasingly contested. Once analysed mainly in reference to minority rights, they now intertwine with debates on internationalization and the rise of English-language instruction across non-English-speaking countries. Yet little attention has been paid to whether policies that require or restrict the use of foreign languages can, in some circumstances, violate academic freedom as a legal right. At the same time, recent court cases and regulatory debates suggest that the language of instruction is increasingly viewed not merely as a technical or linguistic-policy choice, but also as a tool for influencing educational content and institutional self-governance. Such measures may be driven by different actors and motivations but typically engage a complex matrix of legal rights and duties: the right to education, minority protection, the state’s linguistic identity, and – as now argued – academic freedom. This project maps out relevant legal claims, clarifies the scope and nature of the “linguistic dimension” of academic freedom, and shows how human rights may inform language laws and policies in Europe. The project will be realised in collaboration with Dr. Ihintza Palacin Mariscal (University of the Basque Country, Spain).
JACKIE PEDOTA
University of Texas at Austin, United States
Jackie Pedota is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines how educational access and opportunity are shaped within racialized institutional contexts and constrained by restrictive policy environments, revealing mechanisms that reinforce and reproduce racial hierarchies. Her scholarship has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, such as Educational Researcher and The Journal of Higher Education, and in news outlets like Inside Higher Ed. Before pursuing an academic career, she worked for over a decade across the P-20 educational pipeline, including roles in K-12 instruction, non-profit management, educational technology, and higher education administration.
At the Edges of Academic Freedom: U.S. Faculty Engaging in Public Scholarship on Racial Equity Amid a Climate of Suppression | This descriptive case study examines how faculty engaged in racial equity–focused public scholarship navigate escalating state and federal threats to academic freedom and considerations of race in U.S. higher education. Across the country, universities face intensified scrutiny over how faculty, staff, and students engage topics of race, racism, and systemic inequity. State legislation, executive orders, and political pressures have sought to restrict classroom discussions, eliminate diversity-focused initiatives, and sanction faculty for public commentary on racial injustice. These pressures are even greater for public scholarship—like op-eds, community forums, art-based projects, media interviews, and social media engagement—which has long fallen into a gray area of academic freedom protections. Yet such scholarship plays a vital role in connecting academic knowledge to communities, shaping public discourse, and advancing racial equity. This study focuses on faculty working in some of the most politically restrictive environments, such as Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, and North Carolina, to examine how these scholars experience, navigate, and resist these constraints, offering critical insights into the limits of academic freedom in the U.S. Building on my prior research that positions racial equity as central to the contemporary defense of academic freedom, this project advances an expansive, equity-centered vision of academic freedom and offers strategies to better protect scholars at risk.
IRAM NASEER AHMAD
Forman Christian College, A Chartered University, Pakistan
Dr. Iram Naseer Ahmad is serving as an Assistant Professor and Head of the Department at Forman Christian College, A Chartered University, in the Department of History & Pak-Studies. She has a PhD in History from the University of the Punjab. She won an IRSIP Scholarship and spent one semester of her PhD at Arizona State University with the Visiting Exchange Scholar Program. During her PhD, she attended Winter Camp at Nanjing University in China. She contributed a chapter entitled “South Asia in Pursuit of Human Security: Challenges and Concerns in the 21st Century” to the book South Asia: State, Society and Politics. She contributed a chapter entitled “Socio-economic and political inequalities in Baluchistan; A Critical Appraisal” to the book Equality and inequality in the Global World (1950-2020) and contributed another chapter entitled “Deconstructing the problem of ethnicity vs nationalism; Pakistan A Case Study” to the book Identity and Society in the Global World. Both works are near publication. Her area of expertise includes foreign and domestic policy of Pakistan; road initiatives and regional connectivity; Pakistan relations with China; and modern trends in South Asia of human insecurity, environmental challenges, and economic, political, and strategic conflicts. She edited a book volume, “Water Conflicts and Maritime Security Challenges in 21st Century Asia,” which was published in 2024 by Tab Edizioni, Rome, Italy.
Strangled Voices: The Crisis of Academic Freedom Among Pakistani Social Scientists Amid Funding Constraints | Academic freedom is fundamental to higher education, as it facilitates independent inquiry, critical debate, and the democratic production of knowledge. In Pakistan, however, social scientists face significant constraints that undermine academic freedom, primarily stemming from political sensitivities and persistent financial insecurity. Since the mid-2010s, repeated budget reductions and declining public research funding have diminished institutional autonomy, restricted research agendas, and heightened dependence on external donors. International organisations such as USAID, the British Council, and DAAD provide essential support, but their priorities often align with global development agendas rather than directly addressing Pakistan’s specific intellectual needs. These conditions force scholars to prioritise donor-driven, low-risk research and to avoid politically sensitive areas such as governance and accountability, highlighting how academic freedom is constrained. Public universities, including Punjab University, Karachi University, and the University of Peshawar, experience critical resource shortages that lead to administrative gatekeeping and self-censorship. Although private institutions such as LUMS and FCCU have more stable finances, they too are influenced by donor agendas. This study examines how funding structures control research directions, deepen inequalities, and ultimately weaken the social sciences’ ability to serve Pakistan’s academic and societal needs.
MAUREEN SOMPA
University of Zambia, Zambia
Maureen Sompa is a Lecturer in the Department of Language and Social Sciences Education at the University of Zambia. Maureen Completed her Ph.D in Educational Studies from University of the Western Cape, South Africa in 2024. She holds a master’s degree in education, in particular, Civic Education, from the University of Zambia. Maureen’s areas of work and research focus on peace and conflict, policy analysis, higher education, governance, human rights, political science, and academic freedom.
The Politics of Knowledge Production: Academic Freedom and Postcolonial Challenges in Zambian Higher Education | This study seeks to examine the impact of academic freedom on knowledge creation and the broader decolonization efforts, analysing its experiences, disputes, and shifts within the Zambian higher education system. To gather diverse perspectives on academic freedom, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with academics, administrators, and policymakers to collect data. Focus groups with postgraduate students will add depth to the research by showing how early-career academics view and handle the challenges of open inquiry and knowledge creation. Additionally, analysing regulatory frameworks, university statutes, curricula, and public statements will reveal the formal and structural aspects of academic freedom. The significance of this research is to enhance scholarly discussion on academic freedom in Zambia by providing a perspective rooted in local context, which is often missing in international conversations mainly shaped by Western experiences.
RAFIQA QURRATA A’YUN
Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia
Rafiqa Qurrata A’yun is an assistant professor at the Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia and an associate at the Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society (CILIS) at Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD at Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne, in 2024. She is also a senior researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Law and Economics (CIRCLE) at the Faculty of Law, Universitas Indonesia, and the Coordinator of International Cooperation of the Indonesian Campus Workers’ Union (Serikat Pekerja Kampus, SPK). Rafiqa was an Asia Study Grants scholar of the National Library of Australia (in residence from July to August 2024). She was also a recipient of the 2022 Biennial Postgraduate Conference Awards from the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) and the 2021 Australia Awards Hadi Soesastro Prize from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Her research interests include law and politics, law and religion, legal reform, Indonesia’s criminal law, academic freedom, democratisation and Islamist politics. Rafiqa is the author of Law and Politics of Blasphemy in Indonesia, published by the Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia series in 2026.
Defending Academic Freedom through Unionisation at the University | This research explores the potential for unionisation within higher education institutions (HEI) as an alternative approach to strengthening collective action in addressing challenges to academic freedom. Threats to academic freedom often arise from government officials, business entities, and university managers, manifested in the suppression of dissent and the political-economic control over knowledge production. It argues that the union movement within the higher education sector holds significant potential to bolster ongoing advocacy efforts, particularly in addressing the challenges posed by political and economic elites, as well as university managers. This potential lies not only in its commitment to democratic values and human rights but also in its strength derived from widespread mass-based support, especially among university workers. Focusing on Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, this research addresses the following questions: What are the patterns of restrictions on academic freedom in Indonesia’s democratic context? How has the existing advocacy approach dealt with issues related to academic freedom? What role can unions in the higher education sector play in strengthening the advocacy of academic freedom in Indonesia?
SAMANTHA NISSEN
Northwestern University, United States
Samantha Nissen is a director for strategic initiatives and undergraduate programs at the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University and an adjunct faculty member with the university’s International Studies Program. Samantha completed her Ph.D. in Comparative and International Development Education from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2025. In her research and practice, she is interested in issues of student agency, belonging, and success in higher education, particularly as they intersect with social, geopolitical, and educational inequalities.
Teaching and Telling the Truth: Journalism Education and Student Press as Sites of Academic (Un)Freedom | This project takes up collegiate journalism education and student media as sites where academic freedom is exercised and also actively contested, constrained, and misunderstood in the United States. While academic freedom is typically framed around concepts like institutional autonomy and faculty research and speech, journalism educators, collegiate media advisors, and student reporters also experience its boundaries in material ways—through editorial restrictions, surveillance, retaliation, and other threats. Using a multi-sited case study approach, this project explores how this phenomenon is unfolding in the current political environment in particular for non-citizen students and educators, and what that might imply for journalistic, academic freedom, and mobility possibilities in the United States.
VICTOR BELTRAN
Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
Victor Beltran Roman is an adjunct researcher and law professor at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. He holds a law degree (J.D. equivalent) from Universidad Diego Portales and is completing his Ph.D. in Law (ABD) at the same institution. Victor earned an LL.M. and is currently pursuing an S.J.D. at Wisconsin Law School. Before beginning the S.J.D., he was a Fulbright Research Scholar at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was affiliated with the Global Legal Studies Center. His research focuses on criminal procedure, police–prosecutor dynamics, and wrongful convictions.
Navigating Institutional Openness: Academic Inquiry and Police Institutions in South America | This project examines how scholars in South America engage with police institutions and how institutional cultures, levels of openness, and perceived risks shape academic inquiry. While research on policing is essential in democratic societies, access to these institutions remains uneven and is often shaped by historical legacies, political contexts, and organizational practices. In said context, the study explores how researchers navigate these conditions, adapt their work in sensitive environments, and respond to institutional dynamics that influence the production of knowledge.
ISABEL ARRIAGADA
Old Dominion University, USA
Isabel Arriagada is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. Isabel completed her Ph.D. in the Sociology Department at the University of Minnesota in 2024. Before embarking on her doctoral journey, she earned a master’s degree in sociology from Universidad Católica de Chile, and a Juris Doctor Degree from Universidad de Chile. She has won the Hawkinson Foundation for Peace & Justice Award and an academic Fellowship from the Institute of Humane Studies. Her areas of work and research focus on Latin America, state-building processes, organizational sociology, narrative analysis, and the sociology of punishment.
A Tale of Two Values: Civic Engagement and Pluralism in Chile | Universidad de Chile is grounded in the foundational principles of pluralism, public service, and secularism. The institution praises itself for being a pluralistic center of civic engagement with substantive contributions to the broader debates that influence the country’s fate. However, over the past decade, a series of troubling events has revealed a conflict between the institution’s core values. The university encourages civic engagement with social causes, but certain political causes have led to inner conflict among students, faculty, and administrators eroding the principle of academic pluralism. Using a case study mixed-methods approach with the analysis of interviews, archival data, and media coverage, this research project investigates how academic communities at Universidad de Chile reconcile the values of political engagement, pluralism, and academic freedom amid political polarization. The research aims to contribute to the protection of academic freedom in educational institutions, against the pressures of intolerance and political extremism.
YOUSRA HAMDAOUI
Université Hassan II de Casablanca, Morocco
Yousra Hamdaoui is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Faculty of Law, Economics, and Social Sciences of Mohamedia at the Université Hassan II de Casablanca. She is interested in issues related to security, counter-terrorism, violent extremism, and soft power in the Sahel and North Africa. Yousra has conducted fieldwork in Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, and Morocco. Her post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA) at the University of Cape Town focused on scholarly publishing in Africa (Focus: North Africa and Horn of Africa).
Gendered Dimensions of Academic Freedom in South Africa and Morocco: A Comparative Study (Joint project with Margaret Monyani) | This project investigates the impact of declining institutional support for social sciences on the academic freedom of women scholars in South Africa and Morocco. Women academics are predominantly represented in the social sciences, which have historically provided opportunities despite barriers to accessing STEM fields. However, funding cuts and the increasing prioritisation of STEM disciplines are marginalising these spaces, threatening academic freedom and career mobility for women. Focusing on the distinct political, economic, and educational contexts of South Africa and Morocco, the study examines how these institutional shifts limit women’s ability to pursue and produce diverse knowledge. It also explores how the erosion of academic freedom reduces the diversity of perspectives critical to advancing gender equality in academia and beyond. By linking the decline in support for social sciences with gendered dynamics in academic careers, the project offers a nuanced understanding of how shrinking spaces for social sciences affect women’s contributions to knowledge production. It will also propose strategies to safeguard academic freedom and promote gender equity in higher education across these contexts.
MARGARET MONYANI
Institute for Security Studies, South Africa
Margaret Monyani is a migration expert with a decade of experience in university teaching, research project design and execution, and consultancy services focusing on gender, migration, and security in Africa. She currently holds the position of Senior Migration Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa. Prior to joining the ISS, she served as a Guest Researcher at the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen Nürnberg (CHREN) at the Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany. She has also worked as a Sessional Lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She holds a PhD in International Relations, and her research interests focus on gender, migration, and security.
Gendered Dimensions of Academic Freedom in South Africa and Morocco: A Comparative Study (Joint project with Yousra Hamdaoui) | This project investigates the impact of declining institutional support for social sciences on the academic freedom of women scholars in South Africa and Morocco. Women academics are predominantly represented in the social sciences, which have historically provided opportunities despite barriers to accessing STEM fields. However, funding cuts and the increasing prioritisation of STEM disciplines are marginalising these spaces, threatening academic freedom and career mobility for women. Focusing on the distinct political, economic, and educational contexts of South Africa and Morocco, the study examines how these institutional shifts limit women’s ability to pursue and produce diverse knowledge. It also explores how the erosion of academic freedom reduces the diversity of perspectives critical to advancing gender equality in academia and beyond. By linking the decline in support for social sciences with gendered dynamics in academic careers, the project offers a nuanced understanding of how shrinking spaces for social sciences affect women’s contributions to knowledge production. It will also propose strategies to safeguard academic freedom and promote gender equity in higher education across these contexts.
PETYA BURNEVA
Uppsala University; University of Sweden, Sweden
Petya Burneva is an affiliated researcher at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University and the Academy of Public Administration, Södertörn University in Sweden. She is an organizational scholar with interests in four main areas – precarious work, crisis organizing, higher education sector, and transnational public administration. In and out of academia, she works on educational and development initiatives concerning democracy, human rights, and equality.
Academic freedom in exile: organizing precarity | The number of exiled academics worldwide has been steadily increasing but the displacement of scholars has stayed mostly an issue of humanitarianism and hero-victim romanticizing in the public eye. Precarity in academia often translates into challenges not only to professional development but also to professional discretion, values, and autonomy – pillars of academic freedom. There is a growing need to understand how exiled academic labor is being organized. We need to get a picture of the day to day, the networks, and the processes – this is as important as sympathy and solidarity. It will bring societies, institutions, and networks closer to the goal of not only protecting individual academics in a precarious personal situation, but also giving tools to institutions, organizations, and professional networks to better navigate and organize in order to counteract the effects of prolonged academic work in precarity which create multitude of challenges to academic discretion and autonomy, limit the space for innovation and risk-taking, and subdue people into subservience and anticipatory anxiety. The study will give us a window into the organization of exiled academic labor and a better understanding of precarious academic work.
STEWART MANLEY
Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Stewart Manley is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya. His research focuses on international criminal justice, human rights, Global South contributions to the development of international law and academic publishing. Before joining academia, he worked on rule of law and human rights issues with the Burma Lawyers’ Council.
Self-Censorship in Research Choice | This research will examine the impact of external pressures on academic self-censorship. I suggest that some academics are nudged and squeezed, rewarded and threatened, to steer their research in directions that they would not otherwise follow. I know that I am. Negative pressure – the fear of upsetting others, the fear of arrest or harassment, the fear of marginalization – and positive pressure – the incentives provided by academic institutions to increase the number of publications and to publish in particular journals – can have equally pernicious effects. These decisions on research topic are often made silently, in the privacy of academic offices. This research project aims to bring these issues to the surface so that we can study them, analyze their impact, and consider how academics and institutions should respond.
NGUYEN KHAC GIANG
Vietnam Studies Programme, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore
Nguyen Khac Giang is a Visiting Fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. He was formerly Head of the Political Research Unit of the Hanoi-based Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR). His academic work appears in, among others, the Asian Journal of Political Science, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Constitutional Political Economy, and Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, and is an oft-quoted expert on Vietnamese affairs. Giang writes extensively for major Vietnamese and regional news outlets.
Navigating Geopolitical Winds: Vietnam’s Academic Freedom Amidst the U.S.-China Rivalry | This study examines the paradoxical relationship between Vietnam’s strengthening Western ties and declining academic freedom from 2016 to 2024, challenging the conventional assumption that closer alignment with the West promotes liberal values. As Vietnam gains strategic importance in the U.S.-China rivalry, the research demonstrates how the regime leverages its geopolitical position to implement stricter controls on academic discourse without significant international repercussions. Through mixed-methods analysis, including policy document examination, interviews, surveys, and case studies, the study reveals that the Vietnamese government uses its enhanced strategic value to suppress both Western-oriented liberal ideas and pro-China/Russia narratives in academia. The findings contribute to understanding how great power competition affects domestic governance in smaller authoritarian states and highlights the primacy of geopolitical interests over human rights concerns in international partnerships. This research has implications for policymaking, academic institutions, and human rights advocacy, particularly regarding the protection of academic freedom in increasingly complex geopolitical contexts.
RAIKA KHORSHIDIAN
University of Bonn, Germany
Raika Khorshidian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany. She is an art scholar, lecturer, critic, and independent curator. In 2023, as a Georg Forster Postdoctoral Fellow, she co-organized with Prof. Dr. Birgit Mersmann the international workshop “Collective Traumas and Future Fantasies: The Power of (Visual) Art for Social and Political Transition in Iran” at the University of Bonn. The main topics of the workshop and the editorial open access forthcoming book (2026) included protest art, art activism and art-based disobedience in the “Women, Life, Liberty” movement. As a co-founder of “Kannst du mich hören?” (2023-) she collaborated with Folkwang Museum in Essen at “Deffarge & Troeller. No Pictures to Dream of Stern-Features and Documentaries” (15 November 2024 – 23 February 2025). In Summer Semester 2024 she held a seminar on “Iranian Art: Histories and Identities” at the Institute of Asian and Islamic Art History of the University of Bonn. The seminar aimed to go beyond the linear trajectory of political history when it comes to studying art history in a civilization that is ruled by theocratic dictators.
“Woman, Life, Liberty”: Scholars’ Narratives, Academic and Art Activism against the Iranian State’s Propaganda and Repression (Joint project with Shirin Naef) | How does the Islamic Republic engage in the knowledge production in Art and Humanities according to its own ideological goals? Which ideological and propaganda elements underpinned this intervention? How do scholars reflect collective traumas and echo the silenced voices in a society limited by censorship, lacking freedom of speech, and restricted in social and self-expression? This research, on one hand, will examine the impact of the politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran on knowledge production and academic freedom in the Arts and Humanities in Iran. On the other hand, it will analyse the scholarly reactions and activisms to the state’s restrictions. The key aspects of ideological tools, censorship and propaganda, repression of teachers/professors and students, and the state-controlled academic policies will be discussed; meanwhile, scholars’ narratives, academic activism, and intellectual developments and transformations within both national and diasporic academic communities will be collected and presented. The key objective of this research is to set out an analysis of academic freedom and its relation to other values of liberal democracy in relation to the currently widespread impact of the Iranian revolutionary movement of “Woman, Life, Liberty” against the Islamic Republic and its ideologies.
SHIRIN NAEF
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Shirin Naef is a guest Lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Currently she is working on her habilitation project on Rules of Property and Contracts: Law, Freedom, and State in Iran. She completed her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich while she was a doctoral fellow in Bioethics at the International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW) at the University of Tübingen. She studied Social Anthropology, Islamic Studies, and General Linguistics at the University of Bern. Naef was a fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology of the University of Manchester, at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, and at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study “Law as Culture.” Her research and teaching interests focus on Sociology and Anthropology of Law, Legal History, Constitutionalism and History of Liberalism.
“Woman, Life, Liberty”: Scholars’ Narratives, Academic and Art Activism against the Iranian State’s Propaganda and Repression ((Joint project with Raika Khorshidian) | How does the Islamic Republic engage in the knowledge production in Art and Humanities according to its own ideological goals? Which ideological and propaganda elements underpinned this intervention? How do scholars reflect collective traumas and echo the silenced voices in a society limited by censorship, lacking freedom of speech, and restricted in social and self-expression? This research, on one hand, will examine the impact of the politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran on knowledge production and academic freedom in the Arts and Humanities in Iran. On the other hand, it will analyse the scholarly reactions and activisms to the state’s restrictions. The key aspects of ideological tools, censorship and propaganda, repression of teachers/professors and students, and the state-controlled academic policies will be discussed; meanwhile, scholars’ narratives, academic activism, and intellectual developments and transformations within both national and diasporic academic communities will be collected and presented. The key objective of this research is to set out an analysis of academic freedom and its relation to other values of liberal democracy in relation to the currently widespread impact of the Iranian revolutionary movement of “Woman, Life, Liberty” against the Islamic Republic and its ideologies.
ILYAS SALIBA
Global Public Policy Institute; Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient, Germany
Ilyas Saliba is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin and an Associate Researcher at the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient in Bonn. He received his PhD from Humboldt University Berlin in 2024 and has been a Research Fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center between 2013 and 2020. Since 2013, Ilyas has focused on researching, teaching and advising on human rights, civic space, academic freedom and fieldwork safety and ethics. At GPPi, he co-developed the Academic Freedom Index (AFi) and further developed guidelines for qualitative country case studies on academic freedom. He is a member of the advocacy advisory board of Scholars At Risk Europe and serves on the board of the Alliance for Critical and Solidary Scholarship a German association focussing on the protection of academic freedom. Ilyas has co-authored two books and contributed several articles on academic freedom in academic journals, edited volumes and the press. His research interests also include authoritarianism and the shrinking space for civil society organizations (CSOs).
Project description: (Self-)Censorship amongst German social scientists due to the “Fördermittelaffäre” Funding Affair | This research proposal aims to explore the implications of the so-called “Fördermittelaffäre” (Funding Affair) in Germany, focusing on how this controversy has influenced scholars’ abilities to engage in political discourse, particularly concerning sensitive issues such as the current Israeli-Arab conflict. Given the rise in hate speech, defamation, and professional repercussions faced by social scientists in Germany who publicly address these topics, this study seeks to uncover the extent to which the Fördermittelaffäre has contributed to an environment of institutional censorship and self-censorship among social scientists in Germany. The significance of this research lies in its potential to highlight the erosion of academic freedom in Germany, especially concerning politically charged topics. By understanding the social and institutional dynamics at play, the study seeks to illuminate the consequences of external pressures that hinder open inquiry and robust debate within academia and beyond.
MUHIDIN SHANGWE
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Muhidin Shangwe is a Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Political Sciences and Public Administration at the University of Dar es Salaam. He obtained his PhD from the East China Normal University. His dissertation was on Chinese soft power in Africa with focus on Tanzania. He recently completed a tandem research project titled “The coloniality of contemporary geopolitics in East Africa: Insights from Dar es Salaam” which was funded by Freiburg University’s “De/Coloniality Now” research initiative.
(Un)democratizing the state and the plight of academic freedom in Tanzania (2015 – present) | This study aims to interrogate the relationship between political systems/style of government and academic freedom. In particular, it will focus on the period starting from 2015 onward, a period where shirking civic space in Tanzania has been a subject of discussions locally and internationally. The background to this is the fact that there is a general consensus in the academic community that there was greater academic freedom for the large part when Tanzania was under a one-party system (1965-1985) than presently, after three decades of multiparty democracy. The project will involve a thorough review of State laws, policies, rules and regulations which have been introduced, upheld, or changed from 2015, in relation to how they have impacted academic freedom. Despite the fact that there has been a significant body of work on this development, few have focused on its implication on academic freedom. This project aims to fill that gap.
SERHAT TUTKAL
National Council of Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies, Mexico;
Institute for Advanced Study, USA
Serhat Tutkal is a Kurdish academic. He is a postdoctoral researcher funded by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies (Conahcyt) in Mexico and a fellow in the Summer Program in Social Science 2024-2025 at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). He has a PhD in Human and Social Sciences from the National University of Colombia (UNAL) with his dissertation on the legitimation and delegitimation of state violence in Colombia. He has published various articles on political violence, racism, and dehumanization. His research particularly focuses on the role of digital platforms and higher education institutions in reproducing and/or contesting violence.
Organized crime and academic freedom in Mexico | Most literature on academic freedom focuses on state-sponsored violence meanwhile the relationship between organized crime and academic freedom continues to be understudied. This research aims to make up for the gap in literature by focusing on the case of Mexico. Its main objective is to comprehend how scholars that work on criminal violence in Mexico are affected due to their research topics and what are the practices of resistance that allow them to continue their research. I intend to unravel the role of criminal violence in violations of academic freedoms and the effects of such violence on academics at risk. I also aim to account for the actors that negatively affect the scholars working on criminal violence. By collaborating with academics working in Mexico City and Chiapas, I hope to establish a dialogue with academics working under similar conditions in different regions.
EDWARD MBOYONGA
The University of the Free State, South Africa
Edward Mboyonga PhD is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Higher Education and Human Development (HEHD) research group, at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He graduated with a PhD in Development Studies from the same university. Previously, he earned a master’s degree in education (awarded with distinction) from Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland, and a bachelor’s degree (education and history) from the University of Zambia. Edward’s areas of work and research focus on higher education policy, access and equity, academic freedom, Pan-Africanism, and history education.
Academic freedom and the public good in Zambia, 2011-2021: A comparative analysis of provisions and practices in public and private universities | This project aims to examine the state of academic freedom in Zambian universities and its role in advancing public good values using the framework of the Kampala Declaration on Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in Africa. It specifically focuses on the period between 2011 and 2021 because Zambia was among the top six countries or territories in the world with an Academic Freedom Index (AFi) score that deteriorated by 0.15 points in 2021. The project will further provide insights into the institutional policies and practices related to safeguarding academic freedom by drawing on the experiences of lecturers from both public and private universities. The inclusion of private universities is quite novel as many studies on academic freedom in Sub-Saharan Africa focus more on public universities, even though private higher education institutions now outnumber public universities in many countries.
GÜLLİSTAN YARKIN
Independent Researcher
Güllistan Yarkın is an independent researcher who completed her Ph.D. in the Sociology Department at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2017. The title of her dissertation is “The Making of National-Racial Formation and Coloniality in Turkey: Turkish-Kurdish Relations in a Working-Class District of Zeytinburnu in Istanbul, 1950-2017.” In 2020, her application for doctoral diploma accreditation/equivalency to the Interuniversity Board in Turkey was rejected. The claim was that the concepts and expressions she used in her dissertation “may constitute a crime” according to the second paragraph of Article 7 of the Anti-Terror Law and Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Her research areas include racism, anti-racism, colonialism, social movements, urban studies, Kurdish studies, and Turkish-Kurdish relations.
Academic Freedom as a Transnational Issue: Turkish State’s Intervention in Kurdish Studies Conducted Abroad and Scholars’ Coping Strategies | Academic freedom is not only a national issue but also an international concern. This project examines the impact of the Turkish state’s authoritarian politics on the transnational processes of knowledge production, with a particular focus on Kurdish Studies. The following questions lie at the core of this research project: How does the Turkish state which holds power over the knowledge production in Turkey, seek to exert its influence on knowledge production processes about Kurds in international universities? How do academics and doctoral students, who are also citizens of the Republic of Turkey, cope with the transnational state policies while working in universities in North America and Western Europe? By answering these questions, I will analyze to what extent the state-controlled academic policies of Turkey shape the knowledge production processes within international academic establishments.
ZAHRA JAFAROVA
University of Toronto, Canada
Zahra Jafarova is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the Higher Education program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, with a collaborative specialization in Comparative, International, and Development Education. Her research primarily centers on the policy and politics of higher education, with a specific focus on academic freedom and university autonomy. Before embarking on her doctoral journey, Zahra acquired a Master of Arts in Public Policy from King’s College London, honing her expertise in the public policy research.
Academic Freedom during Rising Authoritarianism, Illiberalism and Populism: Conformity, Contestation or Transformation? | This research examines the dynamics of academic freedom in the context of rising authoritarianism, illiberalism, and populism, specifically focusing on how higher education institutions (HEIs) respond to political pressures. With a case study design in Turkey, I seek to uncover how different HEIs within the same system exhibit varied responses to similar political pressure. This research not only highlights the contemporary challenges faced by HEIs in politically volatile environments but also contributes significantly to understanding the nuanced interplay between education, politics, and shifting political landscapes.
VOLHA CHYKINA
University of Richmond, USA
Volha Chykina is an Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the University of Richmond, she spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Donia Human Rights Center at the University of Michigan. Volha researches how exclusionary attitudes and policymaking intersect with education, often determining who gets to study or say what, when, and how, and who gets to succeed.
Academic freedom and populism | In this project, I will examine what drives the general decrease in academic freedom that marks many countries around the world. More specifically, leveraging data from 1916 to 2020 from multiple countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, I will investigate whether a rise of populism leads to a decrease in academic freedom. Since populism is likely to continue to challenge countries across the world in the years to come, these findings will have implications for our understanding of how academic freedom will evolve around the globe. If I find that populism does drive down academic freedom, scholars and policymakers should expect greater curtailment of it in the future, and calls for protecting academic freedom should become even more prevalent.
SOL IGLESIAS
University of the Philippines, Philippines
Sol Iglesias, PhD., is an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP Diliman). She was the inaugural Justice in Southeast Asia Laboratory’s fellow-in-residence from August to September 2023, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Democracy and Autocracy Committee selected her as an Emerging Scholar in 2020 and she won an APSA Asia Program fellowship and research grant in 2021. She was selected as a Southeast Asia Research Group Fellow in 2017. Sol is a convener of the Women in Southeast Asian Social Sciences and an elected member of the UP Diliman Committee on National Policies and Programs. She is a core member of the Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom and a founding member of Scholars for Peace.
Watching Academic Freedoms Erode? Democratic Backsliding and Resistance in the Philippines | My research seeks to answer two questions: is academic freedom diminishing in the Philippines; if so in in what manner? How have scholars been resisting democratic backsliding in their research, as well as in their activism? Evidence will be gleaned and analyzed through data collection of incident reports through an online survey and field research as well as in-depth case study of selected episodes. This study will complement existing monitors of academic freedom globally, and in Asia, including the annual Free to Think incident monitoring by Scholars at Risk itself (to which I had previously contributed a Philippine case study). This research also expands on my on-going work in monitoring and advocacy of academic freedom in the Philippines as a member of the Network in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom, formed by educators and researchers in response to concerns raised during recent presidential elections that elected Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., son and namesake of the ousted dictator. Marcos, Jr. ran on a campaign of historical distortion and disinformation about his father’s legacy. A specific output of this project will be the establishment of a publicly-accessible online platform documenting violations against academic freedom. The project will involve monitoring cases, incident reporting, field validation, and disseminating findings. This initiative will also enable the Network to make timely reactions to incidents like the red-tagging of academics, arrests, or policies hindering free speech. This project will contribute to our understanding of democratic backsliding and resistance more broadly, and the specific dynamics of academic risk in a hybrid regime like the Philippines.
LAST ALFANDIKA | Collaborative Study with Job Mwaura
Great Zimbabwe University, Zimbabwe
Exploring academic freedom in Kenya and Zimbabwe: A comparative study | Our research aims to examine the extent to which Academic Freedom has been recognized in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Guided by the four indicators identified in the UNESCO recommendation for academic freedom which are institutional autonomy, institutional governance, individual rights and freedoms, and tenure, we question the autonomy and the right of academic self-governance in the two countries selected. The research is comparative research between two postcolonial states – Kenya and Zimbabwe and hopes to contribute to discussions around academic freedom, which in the end, will help in finding solutions to associated problems.
Contact: lalfandika@gzu.ac.zw
KHOO YING HOOI
Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
Khoo Ying Hooi, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, Universiti Malaya (UM). Her research lies at the intersection of human rights, democratisation and civil society actors focusing on Southeast Asia. Ying Hooi is actively engaged in both academic scholarship and practical initiatives concerning human rights and democracy in the Southeast Asia region. She also leads the UM Research Group on Human Rights.
The nexus of academic freedom and state repression in Southeast Asia | What are the existing policies protecting academic freedom in Southeast Asia? Is there any direct nexus between the threat to academic freedom and state repression in Southeast Asia? These two questions lead to the main aim of this research. This research aims to provide an overview of the academic freedom situation in Southeast Asia, looking at the policies, identifying their gaps, and engaging the debates between academic freedom and state repression. This research has two contributions. First, from the academic lens, this project contributes to the scarce literature examining the discourse of academic freedom in Southeast Asia. Second, from the policy and advocacy lens, the finding hopes to highlight the issue of academic freedom in Southeast Asia and to provide reference points to those working in restrictive research environments.
Contact: yinghooi@um.edu.my
NWET KAY KHINE
Passau University, Germany
Nwet Kay Khine is a post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Development Politics of Passau University, Germany. She is a former journalist and a writer from Myanmar. Nwet has also been an active member of civil society movements for environmental and social justice in Myanmar since 2008. Nwet is also an alumnus of International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-strategies and her recent research had a focus on understanding the strategies of the authoritarian governments and forms of restrictions on different elements of ideological state apparatus.
The state of freedom: How the democratic decline affects university life in Myanmar | At present, Myanmar is in the middle of intense civil war. Even though all universities are opening, many have been boycotting returning to the class since the coup of February 2021. The university boycott left over 160 campuses half empty since the coup in February 2021. In 2021, report of the Academic Freedom Index ranked Myanmar as one of the D countries, among the worst performers. This project will employ a qualitative study that examines the state of freedom of expression in universities of Myanmar at time of democratic transition and its recent failure.
Contact: khine01@ads.uni-passau.de
CHIKA C. MBA
University of Ghana, Ghana
Chika Mba is Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, where his teaching and research cut across the broad domains of African philosophy, decolonial thought, human rights and global justice. His work centres the understanding of Africa and Africans in key debates in philosophy and the humanities more broadly, raising challenging questions to hegemonic discourses about human nature, global justice, (global) culture and human rights. He holds a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is the recipient of many international research fellowships and sponsorship awards, including the African Humanities Programme by the American Council of Learned Societies; Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA’s) Small Grants Programme for Thesis Writing; the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University’s (UHURU) Postdoctoral Fellowship. In August 2022, he formed the Forum for the Advancement of Academic Freedom in Africa (FAAFA) and convened a series of panel discussions on Academic freedom at the University of Ghana, in the same month.
Academic freedom, neoliberal marketisation of higher education, and democracy in Africa | Focusing on the specific contexts of higher education in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, this project raises and tackles reflexive questions about the relationship between academic freedom and democracy in Africa, in the neoliberal marketisation milieu. Is there a causal link between weak democratic ethos/institutions on the one hand, and the overall lack of institutional freedoms and autonomy in many African higher educational systems? In which direction does causality flow? Is it that weak democracies or undemocratic state institutions cause weak traditions of academic freedom in African universities or is it the other way round? Can we determine the extent to which flourishing traditions of academic freedom may in fact lead to better overall growth of democracy, and vice versa? In the longer haul, this project will help to expand and strengthen the work of FAAFA and its contributions in target societies.
Contact: cmba@ug.edu.gh
JOB MWAURA | Collaborative Study with Last Alfandika
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Job Mwaura is a Research Fellow at the South African Research Chair in Science Communication, at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He is also an affiliate Faculty member at George Mason University in the United States, as well as an Adjunct Lecturer of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). He holds a PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. He researches and publishes on digital media in Africa, African studies, digital activism, digital cultures and social justice.
Exploring academic freedom in Kenya and Zimbabwe: A comparative study | Academic freedom is a fundamental right for research and teaching at universities. It creates opportunities for universities to benefit the public through independent research, freedom of thinking and expression of ideas, and the creation and distribution of knowledge. Despite its importance, the extent to which Academic Freedom has been recognised and practised in Kenyan and Zimbabwean universities remains a highly contested area. The overall aim of this comparative study study is to examine the extent to which Academic Freedom has been recognised in Kenya and Zimbabwe in the midst of their unique contextual issues.
Contact: jobmm2007@gmail.com
DINESHA SAMARARATNE
University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dinesha Samararatne is a law academic with a focus on public law at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She studies public law issues in Sri Lanka including public participation in constitution-making, constitutional resilience, women and constitutional law, fourth branch institutions. Beyond the Sri Lankan jurisdiction, Dinesha has an interest in public law in South Asia and in the study of the concept of the global south. Dinesha has published extensively in leading journals in her field.
Developing a course on academic freedom and institutional autonomy for academics and knowledge institutions in Sri Lanka | What is the doctrinal scope of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in higher education in Sri Lanka? How do academics experience and perceive academic freedom? How does the doctrinal scope compare with lived experiences of Sri Lankan academics? What are the normative implications of doctrine and experience to the concept of academic freedom? I intend to focus on these four questions with the aim of achieving two interrelated outcomes. One is to develop a course offering on academic training for staff development at the level of higher education in Sri Lanka. The second is to develop a scholarly analysis to offer answers to the questions I focus on. The first can be completed within the timeline of the grant and the second will extend beyond the timeline of the grant. Through this project, I intend to contribute to scholarship, policy and practice on academic freedom in Sri Lanka and beyond that to the discourse on academic freedom in the South Asian region and more broadly in the Global South.
Contact: dinesha@law.cmb.ac.lk
FRANK FERNANDEZ | 2021-2022 Alumni Fellow
University of Florida, United States
Frank Fernandez is Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration & Policy at University of Florida. He writes about educational policy and equity issues. His work on free speech rights and academic freedom includes co-authoring The Contested Campus: Aligning Professional Values, Social Justice, and Free Speech and articles in Penn State Law Review and Belmont Law Review.
Investigating the empirical relationship between academic freedom and STEM research production | For this project, I will use longitudinal, cross-national data to address two research questions. First, I will consider: Is there a positive relationship between country-level academic freedom and research production (number of STEM publications)? Second, Is there a positive relationship between academic freedom and research production as measured by quality of STEM publications (i.e., journal ranking)?
Contact: fernandezfrank@coe.ufl.edu
ROSARIO FIGARI LAYÚS | 2021-2022 Alumni Fellow
Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Germany
Rosario Figari Layús is post-doctoral researcher at the Chair of Peace Studies at the Justus Liebig University of Giessen in Germany. She also collaborates as a researcher with the German-Colombian Peace Institute – Capaz in Colombia. Rosario holds a PhD in Political Science from the Phillips University of Marburg. Previously she earned a Master degree in Social Sciences from Humboldt University of Berlin and a degree in sociology from the University of Buenos Aires. Her areas of work and research focus on human rights protection, academic freedom, political and gender-based violence, transitional justice and peace and conflict studies.
Protecting scholars at risk and academic freedom in contexts of extreme violence: The cases of Colombia and Brazil | This project analyzes the current trend of growing attacks against academic freedom in Colombia and Brazil as well as the protection strategies implemented by universities to provide support and protection to scholars. The project pursues the following objectives: to identify and analyze patterns of violence against scholars in Brazil and Colombia; to evaluate university responses and procedures in dealing with scholars at risk; to develop recommendations (as guidelines) for universities responding to cases of attacks and intimidation of researchers; to raise awareness of the situation of scholars at risk in Colombia and Brazil in national and international fora.
Contact: rosario.figari-layus@recht.uni-giessen.de
KATARZYNA KACZMARSKA | 2021-2022 Alumni Fellow
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Katarzyna Kaczmarska is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. In her research, she focuses on knowledge construction among scholars and practitioners of international politics, the role of the socio-political context in knowledge production, and the challenges to academic freedom. Her regional expertise is in the post-Soviet area, with special reference to Russia. Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, she was a Marie-Skłodowska Curie Fellow at Aberystwyth University and St Petersburg State University.
Grassroots resistance to academic freedom violations in Russia | This project focuses on four grassroots initiatives that have among its aims the promotion of knowledge about academic freedom, countering and counteracting academic freedom violations in Russia. I analyze how those organizations promote knowledge about academic freedom, how they organize resistance against academic freedom violations, and how effective they are in meeting their goals.
Contact: k.kaczmarska@ed.ac.uk
DAVID NGIRA| 2021-2022 Alumni Fellow
Mount Kenya University
Dr. Ngira is a former Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cardiff University where he researched on Covid 19, the African state and human rights. Currently, he works as a Lecturer at Mount Kenya University Law Campus where he teaches Legal Theory, Sociology of Law, Law and Development and Human Rights. He holds an LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights from University of Warwick (UK) and a PhD in International Human Rights Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
The implication of criminalization of homosexuality, traditional and religious values on the teaching of social sciences in Kenyan Universities | This project seeks to document the experience of lecturers teaching law and social sciences in faith-based universities in Kenya especially with regard to the issue of homosexual rights. In this regard, the project will explore how religious values, that are mainstreamed in employment contracts, teaching and research within these institutions, affect scholarship on LGBT rights. Through this strategy, the project will act as a platform for conversation on academic freedom in Kenya and will highlight the potential risks of the criminalization, cultural and religious sanctioning of homosexual rights on the teaching of human rights and social sciences generally.
Contact: otienongira@gmail.com
ALIDA BINTE SAQI | 2021-2022 Alumni Fellow
University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh
Alida Binte Saqi is a socio-legal researcher and an educator with nine years of experience with field research. Her professional background includes working with the tea workers’ community, readymade garments (RMG) sector workers’ rights, the dalit (Untouchable) community and hijra (Transgender) community in Bangladesh. She is skilled in academic writing, legal writing, report writing, in-field research management and lecturing. Ms Saqi has a Master’s Degree specialized in Comparative Law from McGill University. She is currently working as a Lecturer of Law with University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Academic freedom in the Indian Subcontinent, current challenges, and potential solutions: Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan as case studies | Focusing on academic freedom in the Indian Subcontinent, this project will explore the current challenges and probable solutions on the basis of data gathered from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan (BIP). Interviews with scholars and students from the BIP will facilitate an understanding of the situation of academic freedom in these countries. Following data analysis, a guideline will be developed for the three countries in order to enshrine academic freedom as a right in their constitutions, state- and national-level laws, and interpret academic freedom based on the findings of this project.
Contact: saqi.alida@gmail.com
CAMILA NOBREGA | 2020-2021 Alumni Fellow
Free University of Berlin
Camila Nobrega is a Ph.D Candidate at the Free University of Berlin and a researcher alumni fellow from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation, among others. She is currently writing her Ph.D on power relations behind the implementation of megaprojects in Brazil at the Gender Divison ain the Political Science department at Free University of Berlin. Camila is also a transmedia journalist and writer with more than ten years of experience on environmental debates, mostly in its intersection with social inequalities, gender and human rights, working in the beginning as a full time reporter at O Globo newspaper in Brazil, having contributed after that with different media vehicles, such as The Guardian, Mongabay, Le Monde Diplomatique, among others. Nowadays she develops a project called Beyond the Green from the perspective of social-environmental justice and gender.
Academic freedom in the research of social-environmental conflicts: a case study with a focus on women scholars at risk in Brazil from non-heteropatriarchal approach | How can we understand the role of concepts as bodies and territories as part of academic freedom? This question is also an invitation to a trajectory of research. Therefore, from a perspective that combines the concept of academic freedom with mainly Latin American feminist lenses on social-environmental conflicts, this research proposes looking at scholars working in two regions in Brazil on issues related to these conflicts to understand which challenges they face and how it affects their academic investigations. The project was developed also in partnership with Prof. Dr. Maria do Mar Castro Varela at the Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin.