De-centering the debate: higher education and academic freedom in developing and postcolonial states

• ESTER GALLO, University of Trento

Abstract

This seminar brings the debate on academic freedom in contexts different from the ones where the concept originally developed, that is Europe and the US, with the aim at looking at continuities and differences between different geopolitical areas. The first part of the talk will explore if, how and the extent to which academic freedom - in its different dimensions – finds place in the development of postcolonial states and nation-building processes, and what colonial legacies might permeate in the present. We will then discuss the different ways in which conflicts and political violence impact on higher education communities, lead to different typologies of limitations and violations, and to forced migration. 

Organized within Modul Jean Monnet ESAF - European Societies and Academic Freedom: Patterns, Problems, Solutions