Tackling the Rise of Illiberalism

Academic festival Day Zero (7 February 2024) marks the first day of the SDG Conference Bergen. The day offers free, hybrid (in-person and digital) opportunities for workshops, debates, exhibitions related to the SDGs. The conference is running under the theme “The role of universities in transformative change” and one of the sessions hosted by GRIP at this year’s Day Zero is “Tackling the Rise of Illiberalism”.

TACKLING THE RISE OF ILLIBERALISM

The global political landscape for the past two decades has been dominated by the rise of illiberalism. Illiberalism, often arriving in disguise of far right-wing populism, to an increasing degree is also interested in the higher-education sector. Universities are often seen as easy targets for illiberalism as they are both subject to heavy regulations and often highly dependent on public funding. Tackling the Rise of Illiberalism session, therefore, explores questions that include the following:

• What challenges do illiberal practices pose to universities?
• What kind of reforms the sector is experiencing under illiberalism?
• What does it mean to be a scholar/student under a rising far-right regime that often implies shrinking freedoms?
• What are the possible responses and forms of resistance by academia?  

PARTICIPANTS:

• Andrea Peto, Central European University
• Jens Jungblut, University of Oslo
• Amy Kapit, Scholars at Risk
• Şansal Güngör Gümüşpala, University of Victoria
• Elina Troscenko, Global Research Programme on Inequality

This will be a digital event.  In order to participate and follow the streaming of the event, please register for the  Day Zero/the Bergen SDG conference.

You can register for the conference here: Register – SDG Conference in Bergen 2024 – Registration type (eventsair.com)

Full program of the Day Zero events is available here: Day Zero 2024 programme | SDG Conference in Bergen | UiB