Academic freedoms, scholars and students are under threat from governments and non-state military actors from all over the world, according to the latest report issued by Scholars at Risk Network. Covid19 created additional pressures and problems for the academic realm, with universities positions reduced and online harassment increasing.
It´s my first time reading this report and found it very relevant for the state-of-the arts of academia nowadays. It copes less with legislation and more with different itrusive, aggresive and violent actions of state and non-state actors against members of academia.
All over the world, campus and academics are not a convenient partner. Universities are places of dissent due to their main intellectual mission. Although supported by the state, financially and logistically, they are the guarantee of freedom and progress. When academics are in chains, the whole country is so. When academics are under permanent threat, including physical one, like in the case of Afghanistan, for instance, where Talibans are regularly raiding campuses and academic compounds killing ramdomly students and teachers, the higher the political and social risks im the country.
For me, it was interesting to follow up the dramatic situation of the academic life in Yemen, after five years of intense civil war, as well as the latest development in Turkey, where academic life is under threat for years following the escalation of Erdogan´s power, a situation that practically forced many academics to leave the country.
Such reports are very important for the state of the world nowadays, because they show how much is at stake when it comes to academia. And why it is important that academics are protected against the various state-based attempts to give up.
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