Between Storm and Shelter: Analyzing Defiance and Protection of Academic Freedom, 2010-2022

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Protecting, Protesting, and Amplifying Academic Freedom

Proposal

Protests within the realm of higher education frequently assume the role of poignant demonstrations that underscore the intrinsic interplay between intellectual and academic freedom, while also championing the rights of students, scholars, and often the broader populace. Throughout history and across the globe, numerous instances illustrate this connection. Examples span a range of contexts, such as the case of Fisk University in the 1920s within the United States (Lamon, 1974), the peaceful resistance of the White Rose group against Nazi Germany (Lippman, 2000), the Mexican Student Movement during the 1960s (Pensado, 2013), or more recently, the Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 (Purbrick, 2019). These instances not only underscore the mutual relationship between protests and the protection of (academic) freedom, resistance, or advocating for institutional change but also stand as testaments to the enduring struggles waged in the name of these ideals.

In recent times, the surge of populism and new nationalism (Eatwell & Goodwin, 2018). Zapp, 2022) is threatening the liberal higher education project (Schofer, Lerch & Meyer, 2022). Several accounts chronicle severe onslaughts against the higher education sector, spanning beyond student and academic protests. They encompass actions such as the enactment of legislation aimed at closing international universities, exertion of political controls over institutional autonomy, efforts to dissuade academic events, imposition of constraints on students and academics' freedom of movement, or disciplinary measures targeting both faculty members and students, among other disconcerting scenarios (Douglass, 2021; Scholars at Risk, 2022).
At the heart of this disquieting scenario lies the erosion of one of the most fundamental principles upon which the modern university has been constructed: academic freedom. According to the Academic Freedom Index report of 2022, academic freedom is in retreat for over 50% of the world’s population, showing a substantial and significant decline in improvements over the past 10 years (V-Dem Institute, 2022). Academic freedom can be defined as “the right, without constriction by prescribed doctrine, to freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing the results thereof, freedom to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies” (UNESCO, 1997). Although the concept of academic freedom is intricately intertwined with the international human right of freedom of expression, it is noteworthy that national legal frameworks designed to safeguard this principle exhibit substantial variation across the globe. Moreover, amidst the scattered narratives reported by media and academic scholarship, often confined to individual national incidents, a pressing need emerges for a more comprehensive and longitudinal analysis of the assaults on academic freedom to not only understand the extension but also the substance of the attacks.

This article sets out to bridge this research void by adopting an international human rights legal perspective (Moeckli, Shah & Sivakumaran, 2022) as a lens through which to comprehend the intricacies of academic freedom. In terms of methodology, this endeavor leverages the Scholar at Risk Monitoring Report database, which aggregates approximately 2000 instances of global attacks on academic freedom that occurred between 2010 and 2022, alongside an exploration of national legal frameworks. The article's trajectory unfolds across several stages. Firstly, an exploration delves into the relationship between academic freedom and freedom of speech, further examining the comprehensive array of international human rights legal instruments. Subsequently, the article employs a quantitative investigation into these attacks' scale and geographical distribution, coupled with a qualitative inquiry into their nature, analyzing targeted subjects, perpetrators, and attack typologies. Lastly, the article turns its gaze to the national legal frameworks within countries that have experienced the most pronounced instances of academic freedom attacks. Through this analysis, the aim is to gain a nuanced understanding of the level of legal protection granted to academic freedom within these jurisdictions. Additionally, the article seeks to establish links between these national legal frameworks and international human rights law, basing these connections on the typologies of the attacks. This analysis not only enriches the comprehension of academic freedom but also explores avenues on how international human rights law can offer legal protection to academic freedom. Preliminary results show that attacks on academic freedom have been increasing in scale since 2010 worldwide, with a strong focus on the world regions of Southern and Western Asia. Turkey, India, China, Nigeria, and the U.S. are the five countries with the highest number of occurrences.

References

Douglass, J.A. (2021). Neo-nationalism and Universities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Eatwell, R. & Goodwin, M. (2018). National Populism. The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy. London: Penguin Books.
Lamon, L.C. (1974). The Black Community in Nashville and the Fisk University student strike of 1924-1925. The Journal of Southern History, 40(2), 225-244.
Lippman, M. (2000). The White Rose: judges and justice in the Third Reich. Connecticut Journal of International Law, 7(1), 95-123.
Moeckli, D., Shah, S. & Sivakumaran, S. (2022). International Human Rights Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pensado, J.M. (2013). Rebel Mexico: Student unrest and authoritarian political culture during the long sixties. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Purbrick, M. (2019). A report of the 2019 Hong Kong protests. Asian Affairs, 50(4), 465-487.
Schofer, E., Lerch, J.C. & Meyer, J.W. (2022). Illiberal Reactions to Higher Education. Minerva, 60, 509-534.
Scholars at Risk (2022). Free to Think. Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. Available at https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/free-to-think-2022/
UNESCO. (1997). Recommendation concerning the status of higher-education teaching personnel. Retrieved November 11, from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000113234.page=2
V-Dem Institute (2023). Academic Freedom Index. Update 2023. Available at https://academic-freedom-index.net/research/Academic_Freedom_Index_Update.pdf
Zapp, M. (2022). The Legitimacy of Science and the Populist Backlash: Cross-national and Longitudinal Trends and Determinants of Attitudes towards Science. Public Understanding of Science, 31(7), 885-902.

Author

• Marcelo Marques, University of Luxembourg