Academic freedom is core to our work as scholars. It is under more threat than ever before, and a contentious concept that has been debated, weaponised and mobilised. This day-and-a-half workshop on academic freedoms will make space for participants to develop their own understandings of academic freedom in relation to their positionalities and their communities, using methods including speculative fiction and peer discussion. We will approach academic freedom as a collective and professional right, one which we must discuss and develop in order to defend.
The workshop will be informed by a panel of scholars working on academic freedom in principle and practice and will focus in particular on the future of academic freedom for early career scholars – as it is early career scholars for whom the most is at stake. The workshop will conclude with a session on translating participants’ academic freedom hopes and fears into tools for public advocacy, such as a collaborative manifesto.
The workshop is a collaboration between Cambridge’s Academic Freedoms Research Network, CRASSH and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies.
It is open to all, with a particular invitation to members of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network (East of England Cluster).