In this latest lecture in the Ouvertures series, Abdoulaye Gueye, EHESS/Iméra Chair in Transregional Studies 2025-2026, looks at the future of the university in a context where academic freedom is being curtailed. What solutions can be considered? Registration is required to attend this conference.
Pauliane site, Faculty of Economics and Management, Aix Marseille Université © Elea Ropiot
Academic freedom put to the test by contemporary societal divides
Universities are in a unique position. As a public good essential to the positive transformation of a society, some consider that its contribution to the well-being of the community increases with the degree of its autonomy. But they are rarely immune from the pressures and attempts to be influenced by rival interest groups.
In both old democracies and authoritarian regimes, from the United States to China and France, academic freedom is under attack from organisations intent on exploiting the university for their own means. This conference is a reflection on the factors that impede academic freedom, as well as offering suggestions for action to counter such impediments.
This conference will be chaired by Cécile Van Den Avenne, director of studies at the EHESS, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Practical information
- Date: Thursday, March 12th, from 5.30 pm to 7.30 pm
- Venue: Maison des Astronomes conference room, Iméra, 2 place Leverrier 13004 Marseille
- Language: this conference is in French.
- The room can only accommodate 50 people. Registration is therefore compulsory.
Past conferences :
- Thursday, November 13th, 2025: When anti-racism became postcolonial: the anti-racist turn of the 2000s between colonial memory and the “race question” by Itay Lotem, Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster, London, UK.
- Thursday, December 11th, 2025: My love affair with cancer: exploring the disease through comics by Josune Urrutia Asua, artist, illustrator and cartoonist.
- Thursday, January 15th, 2026: The price of democracy by Asensio Robles-Lopez, Adjunct Professor, Pontifical University of Comillas, Madrid, Spain.
- Group session – Thursday, February 12th, 2026: Contested history by Brian Sandberg, Professor of History at the Northern Illinois University, Chicago, USA.
About the Ouvertures cycle
The Ouvertures series of meetings is aimed at teacher-researchers, doctoral students and curious and passionate citizens, with the firm intention of keeping open and bright a space of intelligence, curiosity and collective discovery in an increasingly dark age, in which these kinds of spaces are shrinking or disappearing.
During the Ouvertures meetings, international scientists and artists in residence at Iméra will offer an insight into their research on sensitive subjects, conducted without taboos and with honesty.
