Debatte

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    • Tag: student protests

    • Academic freedom – for whom, for what, and to what end?

      Köppert, Katrin: “Für eine radikale Imagination von Wissenschaft” [For a radical imagination of scholarship], Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 17 (2025), Nr. 2, pp. 140-144, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/24183.

      Peters, Kathrin: “Kritik der Wissenschaftsfreiheit” [Critique of academic freedom], Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 17 (2025), Nr. 2, pp. 135-139, http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/24182.

      What does it mean when there is so much talk about academic freedom at the moment? Who uses the term and for what purposes? To whom does this freedom apply? Who is not being considered, what is not being thought about? In the Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft (Journal of Media Studies), Katrin Köppert and Kathrin Peters have published contributions to the debate that take the reactions of universities to the genocidal war in Gaza as a starting point for problematizing the discourse on academic freedom.

      Katrin Köppert argues that responding to the curtailment of academic spaces by defending academic freedom is futile. Against the backdrop of Black Radical Thought, the call for freedom must first acknowledge the problem of a real existing lack of freedom. Rinaldo Walcott has described Black emancipation as something that has not yet happened. Following Walcott’s thinking, the plea for academic freedom should be replaced by the demand for a radical imagination of scholarship.

      ↗ https://mediarep.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ddba5814-7f36-486e-b0cb-7745e6a735ca/content

      Kathrin Peters also takes issue with focusing solely on academic freedom. She sees the relationship between scholarship and politics as intertwined since the dawn of science. The call for academic neutrality is therefore political in itself, as it ignores the fact that even the perception of a problem as a problem can never be neutral. Against this backdrop, the debate on academic freedom that has erupted in response to protests in solidarity with Palestine at universities is proving to be a deflection. As justified as doubts about whether academic freedom has always been protected by the state may be in individual cases, these debates also serve to divert analytical attention away from pressing questions—questions about where racism and anti-Semitism begin and end, or about the so-called German culture of remembrance. Above all, however, the debates obscure the situation in Gaza, which is what the protesters want to draw attention to in the first place.

      ↗ https://mediarep.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f29c8fb2-cd66-40d5-8301-efa6d8336fa5/content

    • The Serbian government’s revenge on students and professors

      Adriana Zaharijević und Jana Krstić: How Did a Fight Against Corruption Become a Struggle Over Education? — Chronology of Pressure, Balkan Talks, 23. Mai 2025, https://balkantalks.org/chronicle-of-serbias-student-and-academic-uprising-2024-2025/

      Largely unnoticed in Western Europe, the conflict between the government and universities, students, and professors in Serbia continues to escalate. Since the end of last year, civil society in Serbia has been staging mass protests, mainly against widespread corruption and the collapse of constitutional institutions. (Snežana Stanković, here at Debatte, already outlined how the EU is involved in these events with its “lithium pact” and arms trade, in her pick on February 3.) The protests are mainly led by students. In December 2024, almost all public faculties in the country backed the students’ demands, fearing that the very existence of science and the education system itself was at stake. Teachers have organized and networked nationwide.

      Since March, the government has been cracking down relentlessly: the Ministry of Education, dubbed the “Ministry of Revenge,” is simply refusing to pay teachers and university professors most of their salaries. Peaceful protests are being hijacked by agents provocateurs to damage the reputation of the demonstrators, and the government is stirring up fears of violent clashes. University professors are now required to teach 35 hours per week, which makes research almost impossible. They often no longer know how they will make a living. Many are facing dismissal, and the accreditation system is in danger of collapsing. Since May 8, the government has been planning a new law on higher education that is expected to drastically restrict freedom of research and teaching.

      Our Serbian colleagues appeal to the international community not to ignore the repressive measures in Serbia, but to stand in solidarity with the students and professors and their demands for transparency, accountability, and academic independence.

      ↗ https://balkantalks.org/chronicle-of-serbias-student-and-academic-uprising-2024-2025/