Event Details

Academic freedom has been severely restricted, and higher education has undergone significant restructuring in recent years under authoritarian regimes.

In this hostile environment, Solidarity Academies in Turkey have emerged as alternatives, fostering resistance and upholding academic freedom. Their practices provide a crucial response to the intersecting pressures of authoritarianism and neoliberalism, preserving academic values in times of crisis.

Through a critical analysis of the experiences of Solidarity Academies in Turkey, this seminar will highlight the importance of defending academic freedom, promoting solidarity, and imagining alternative pathways for higher education in the face of rising authoritarianism.

This event is part of the Educational Research Seminar Series.

Seminar presenter

Dr Funda Karapehlivan is a visiting postdoctoral research fellow at the Leibniz Center for Science and Society and teaches at the Institute of Sociology at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Her research focuses on academic identity, academic solidarity and freedom, and higher education policies in the context of neoliberalism and authoritarianism.