Informing
Policy
for Progress

May 12, 2022

Higher Education Forum: Session No.54: Academic freedom today – a moral stance in the face of polarization and crisis

12.05.22, Zoom

While the value of academic freedom was put to the test in the early days of the university in the Middle Ages, the 21st century presents new types of challenges to the same normative imperative, let alone challenges arising from conditions of crisis and social polarization. The opening session of the “Shaar” 2022 series will be devoted to the question of the definition of academic freedom and its limits in these challenging social conditions: How can academic freedom be balanced with the social commitment of the Academy? What is between institutional autonomy and the freedom of the academy’s women in research and teaching? And how do governments use the security argument to curtail academic freedom? How does the dynamics of self-hearing in academia also draw new boundaries for that academic freedom? And what is the solidarity required to validate the value of academic freedom? … And all these are above and beyond the details of one case or another of putting academic freedom to the test these days, in Israel or in other countries.

Greetings:
Dr. Vered Ariel-Nahai, CEO BaShaar
Chairman and moderator: Prof. Shimon Yankelewitz. Chairman of the Higher Education Forum, BaShaar
Prof. David Harel, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, and President of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences

Opening remarks:
Prof. Gili Drury, Chairman and moderator of the meeting, “Shaar” and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Panel with the participation of:
Dr. Raoya Aboravia, School of Law
Dr. Dana Barnett, Academic College, Research Fellow, Institute in Sa’a, Bar Ilan University
Prof. Avner de-Shalit, Department of Political Science, Hebrew University
Prof. Pnina Mushfi-Haller, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and President of the Israeli Anthropological Association

Questions from the audience

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12.05.22, Zoom

While the value of academic freedom was put to the test in the early days of the university in the Middle Ages, the 21st century presents new types of challenges to the same normative imperative, let alone challenges arising from conditions of crisis and social polarization. The opening session of the “Shaar” 2022 series will be devoted to the question of the definition of academic freedom and its limits in these challenging social conditions: How can academic freedom be balanced with the social commitment of the Academy? What is between institutional autonomy and the freedom of the academy’s women in research and teaching? And how do governments use the security argument to curtail academic freedom? How does the dynamics of self-hearing in academia also draw new boundaries for that academic freedom? And what is the solidarity required to validate the value of academic freedom? … And all these are above and beyond the details of one case or another of putting academic freedom to the test these days, in Israel or in other countries.

Greetings:
Dr. Vered Ariel-Nahai, CEO BaShaar
Chairman and moderator: Prof. Shimon Yankelewitz. Chairman of the Higher Education Forum, BaShaar
Prof. David Harel, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, and President of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences

Opening remarks:
Prof. Gili Drury, Chairman and moderator of the meeting, “Shaar” and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Panel with the participation of:
Dr. Raoya Aboravia, School of Law
Dr. Dana Barnett, Academic College, Research Fellow, Institute in Sa’a, Bar Ilan University
Prof. Avner de-Shalit, Department of Political Science, Hebrew University
Prof. Pnina Mushfi-Haller, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and President of the Israeli Anthropological Association

Questions from the audience

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