Academic freedom, context and positionality

Wed 3 December 2025

Alison Richard Building

This seminar will bring global perspectives and experiences of academic freedom into dialogue. We will take a spectrum, experiential approach to academic freedom, one that considers the context and positionality of the scholar as key to the exercise of academic freedom. This is in contrast to the binary ‘have versus have-not approach’ that is common in Western academic debates (Jackson 2024). We will hear from scholars with diverse experiences of academic freedom, as well as about the problematics caused by remedies to violations of this right, which may be well-intentioned but are caught in structures such as the neoliberalisation of the university that perpetuate limitations to academic freedom (Özdemir, Mutluer & Özyürek 2019).

Speakers
Wesam Amer (CARA/SRF (Council for At-Risk Academics/Scholar Rescue Fund) Fellow, University of Cambridge)
Caroline Johnston (Mellon Research Fellow in American History, University of Cambridge)
Esra Özyürek (Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge)

Moderated by Ella McPherson (Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge).

This event is followed by drinks in the ARB atrium.

Cost: Free