Struggles for academic freedom (part 1)

Abstract

In the first of two interviews on the issue of academic freedom, the editors of American Ethnologist interviewed Hayal Akarsu, president of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, and Heath Cabot, president of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology, about the restrictions faced by scholars and students in Europe and beyond. In a wide-ranging discussion, Akarsu and Cabot consider historical cycles of repression, surveillance, and censorship. Police on campuses and legal attacks on protesters are creating atmospheres of fear; the academic precariat has new incentives to self-discipline. Safety rhetoric and accusations of anti-Semitism have been weaponized to silence legitimate criticism of the state and settler colonialism. More optimistically, Akarsu and Cabot see opportunities for systematic documentation and global community building to resist the suppression of academic freedom. Ultimately, they suggest, the distinction between free speech and academic freedom—knowledge based on research—is critical. Yet allowing all sides to participate in debate remains a critical element of changing minds and creating spaces of learning, not spaces of exclusion.