Allegra editor Ian M. Cook writes about... creating academic freedoms 
I've spent pretty much all my academic life between Hungary, India and the UK. Hungary, where foundations filled with regime cronies have been put in charge of once public universities. India, where right wing gangs can enter a campus to attack students and teachers, and where political appointees at institutions help censor academics. And the UK, where neoliberal managerialism and prestige worshipping scholars make sure everything is measured and precarity ignored. Theft, violence and stupidity at every turn.
Which is why it's worth remembering that academic freedom is not a given. It's something that needs to be fought for. And that the fight - against government interference, rightwing snowflakes and the marketisation of everything - is interconnected. Letting universities shut down talks about genocide, hoping that your H-Index will save your job when it's decided to shut down your 'low-value' department, and trying to drown out the smell of the world burning around you with your spiced pumpkin latte won't help you for long. |