One measure of the fragile state of many democracies is the way in which public universities have come under attack around the world. This monthly podcast series will seek to address the myriad forces seeking to foreclose public universities as spaces of critique and democratic protest across the globe. It will explore how these trends related to the defunding of higher education; its redefinition as a private not a public good; the increasing authoritarian nature of university management; the use of culture wars and discourses of civility to police class-rooms; the waves of redundancies and closures of departments and programs; and the attempts to delimit academic freedom, free speech and rights of assembly and protest. We hope our conversations with those who work in higher education around the world will allow us to consider the degree to which the university has become the canary in the coal mine for the fate of democracy.

Click here for the podcast “Episode 1: Understanding Academic Freedom: Interview with Hank Reichman“