The Network of Academic Solidarity and Engagement in cooperation with the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory organizes a panel discussion whose goal is to open the issues of autonomy and freedom of thought, with a focus on the university, which should be the cradle of social criticism.
We are witnessing that demands for freedom of expression, more democracy and more justice are increasingly being censored and interpreted as calls for rebellion. Support for change is interpreted as the voice of a notorious elite that does not understand or undermines the aspirations of the "ordinary" man. This kind of censorship is not only a specialty of our societies. Trump even openly calls professional media where supporters of critical thinking are enemies of the people.
When the state does not protect either autonomy or freedom of thought, when unconditional obedience becomes a principle of state organization, then the university must become that place, a beacon and a fortress within the state itself that protects both freedom of thought and the right to criticize. Otherwise, thinking becomes dangerous. Censorship is essentially violent, because the consequences of censorship - as shown by numerous cases from different parts of the world - can be threats of violence or actual violence, surveillance, censorship of publications, mock trials, defamation, expulsion from the workplace, expulsion from the country and finally, even death.
How can we explain the fact that the space for public speaking is expanding, because there are more and more platforms and opportunities for communication, while at the same time the space for critical thinking is narrowing? Is the cacophony actually suffocating him? Does the growing populism that recognizes in criticism a "rotten elitism" that is essentially always hostile to "the people" contribute to the stifling of critical thinking? What are the spaces for critical engagement in the West that dissolve right-wing populism? How to identify those areas in Eastern Europe where authoritarian right-wing populists managed to collapse institutions and narrow the space for action in already weak societies? Has the deliberative collapse of the authority of knowledge irreversibly opened the door to the decline of the university as an institution that produces critical thinking? How do universities resist censorship and what to do when the pressure becomes unbearable?
The event was supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Belgrade and Dom omladine Belgrade.
Participants:
Judith Butler, University of Berkeley, California
Ivan Vejvoda, Institute for Humanistic Studies, Vienna
Athena Athanasiou, Pantheon University, Athens
Sanja Bojanić, Center for Advanced Judges of Southeast Europe, University of Rijeka
Elena Tzelepis, Center for Advanced Studies, Sofia
Adriana Zaharijević, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade
