Panel Discussion | Academic Freedom in 2025

REAF and the Leibniz ScienceCampus are pleased to invite you to a panel discussion reflecting on Academic Freedom in 2025. We are delighted to welcome the following speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Benjamin Chappell (Max Kade Center, University of Kansas; REAF Visiting Fellow),
• Dr. Carmen Dexl (University of Regensburg),
• Dr. Diana Georgescu (University College London), and
• Prof. Dr. Ursula Regener (University of Regensburg).

Questions of academic freedom have moved to the forefront of our discourse — not only in the wake of the Trump presidency. Around the world, academic institutions and, by extension, the shape of public knowledge landscapes are being disrupted by internal and external forces and power structures that are hostile to the free, critical, collaborative, and multiperspectival production of knowledge. This international panel sheds light on contemporary forms, dynamics, and manifestations of academic unfreedom, exploring potential ways of responding, coping, and resisting, and ponders visions for the future.