Lecture Series Lecture: Contemporary Threats to Academic Freedom
18 October 2024
Curtain-raiser in Ruperto Carola Lecture Series “Freedom?! The University as a Space for Discourse”
In her lecture, Prof. Dr Gisèle Sapiro from the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris (France) is going to speak (in English) about the different ways in which academic freedom is under threat today. The sociologist’s presentation entitled “Contemporary threats to academic freedom” will launch the Ruperto Carola Lecture Series dedicated this winter semester to the topic “Freedom?! The University as a Space for Discourse”. From different angles and a transcultural perspective, the series organized by Heidelberg University explores the role of universities and research in society and in current political conflicts. The first lecture is scheduled for Monday 21 October 2024 in the Great Hall of the Old University, starting at 6pm.
Restrictions on academic freedom are shaping the public space and posing a threat to academics and academic institutions all over the world. In her lecture the speaker will enlarge upon the contemporary challenges in order to discuss a transcultural research approach to elucidating the causes and forms of these restrictions. It aims to develop a comparative insight into how governments, security establishments and economic interests restrict academic freedom with a wide array of constitutional, legal, political and financial instruments. Following her lecture, Prof. Sapiro will discuss key issues in her research with historian Prof. Dr Manfred Berg, deputy director of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies at Heidelberg University.
The Ruperto Carola Lecture Series is part of an approach to focal themes like RIGHT & WRONG. With this series, Heidelberg University seeks to take socially relevant research questions to a broad public twice a year in differing formats. In the present lecture series, researchers from various disciplinary perspectives are speaking on “Freedom?! The University as a Space for Discourse”. The series was planned with reference to “Science Year 2024 – Freedom” by sinologist Prof. Dr Barbara Mittler and media anthropologist Prof. Dr Christiane Brosius of the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies.
The opening event “Contemporary threats to academic freedom” with Gisèle Sapiro and her dialogue partner Manfred Berg will be followed in the winter semester by seven more lectures with academics from Heidelberg University, as well as visiting speakers from other research institutions at home and abroad.