Conversations on Academic Freedom by Zeynep Alemdar
interview
interview
Conversations on Academic Freedom by Zeynep Alemdar
Academic freedom faces challenges beyond autocratic regimes. Zeynep Alemdar speaks with Sayed Azam-Ali and Svitlana Matviyenko on how they navigate a changing academic landscape
The latest trends show that threats to academic freedom are not limited to declining democracies or autocratic countries. Anti-intellectualism, fueled by populism, the economy of universities, and the ontological security of states, affects how academia is perceived and acts, and how academics around the world are isolated.
Zeynep Alemdar's conversations with Sayed Azam-Ali and Svitlana Matviyenko focus on how scholars from various backgrounds and countries understand academic freedom. Through stories of their academic journeys, the scholars discuss the state of academia worldwide, their conception of academic freedom, and their vision for an ideal academic space. They also try to come up with a tangible solution, or at least a step towards one.
Moderation
Zeynep Alemdar is professor of International Relations and Political Science and Director of the Foreign Policy Programme at the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM). Her academic research focuses on a wide range of topics. She has worked on gender (and) international security, democratisation, human rights and citizenship issues in Turkey, as well as Turkey-EU relations and Turkish foreign policy. Zeynep has taught international politics in various capacities and was a visiting professor at Portland State University. She worked for 19 years at a foundation university in Istanbul as a department head and dean of the Faculty of Business and Administrative Sciences. Zeynep founded the Women in Foreign Policy Initiative and is a board member of the European Leadership Network (ELN). In 2014, she was selected as one of the 4 leaders under 40 in the Euro-Atlantic security area and spent her sabbatical at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. She received her BA in Economics from Galatasaray University in 2000, her MA in 2001 and her PhD from the University of Kentucky in 2005.