This collaborative research network brings together academics, activists, and students to discuss academic freedoms in today’s context of polycrisis.
Academic freedom is central to the research and education conditions of the university, and yet, globally, it has been in significant decline since 2013 (Lott 2023). This research network builds a community of scholars interested in understanding and advocating for the protection of our academic freedoms. It also allows us space to collectively define the concepts and practices of academic freedoms based on our experiences as scholars, in counterpoint to externally-derived definitions that have taken dominance in the public sphere, such as those of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.
To build collective approaches to and understandings of academic freedoms, participants committed to attending at least five seminars throughout the academic year. A core emphasis of the seminar series was trust-building, as thinking through the high-stakes concepts and practices of academic freedom requires difficult conversations among people who may not agree. A second core emphasis of the seminar series was on understanding academic freedom as a collective rather than an individual right, and as experienced differently across contexts and positionalities.
Programme in the Lent term 2026
February 10. The Activist Scholar and Academic Freedoms: A Discussion
Activist scholarship can attract crackdowns on academic freedom. Advocating for academic freedom can mean being an activist scholar. And yet, the academy sits uncomfortably with the idea of being an activist scholar, and scholars have made impassioned arguments on both sides of the debate. This discussion-based seminar will take a cultural approach to activist scholarship, moving beyond the right-or-wrong binary to make the connection between these views and differing understandings of the epistemologies and the small politics of scholarship. We welcome participation from a range of scholars working across academia and activism and will have space to reflect on our own positions.
March 3. Academic freedoms, backlash and offence
Crack-downs on academic freedom can be understood as backlashes, while certain arguments for academic freedom can be understood as reactions to perceived offence. After a theoretical introduction to the concepts of ‘backlash’ and ‘offence’, the seminar will split into groups. Each group will role-play a case of contested academic freedom, reflecting on and analysing how backlash and offence played a role. The idea is that understanding the dynamics and discourses around these phenomena helps us more fully comprehend contestations around academic freedom in the context of the culture wars.
March 17. Academic freedom and freedom struggles
This concluding seminar of Lent Term put struggles for academic freedom in conversation with other struggles for freedom, particularly anti-slavery and anti-racism movements. It will explore what these struggles can learn from each other and how they intersect.
Convenors
Professor Ella McPherson (Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge)
Professor Sharath Srinivasan (POLIS, University of Cambridge)
Collaborator
Mónica G. Moreno Figueroa (Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge)
Website
The project is supported by CRASSH
Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation 