Academia in Exile
Structural Problems, Challenges, Perspectives
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The regimes in Russia and Belarus are persecuting dissidents with increasing severity. Thousands of academics and many students are also suffering as a result. In both countries, it is becoming increasingly clear that critical thinking and academic freedom are coming to an end. The quality, production, and communication of academic work are in decline. In Ukraine, too, Russia’s war of aggression has driven tens of thousands of mainly female academics and students into emigration. The consequences for the country’s education system and institutions of higher learning are dramatic. Western funding and admission programmes are unable to cope with this exodus of academics. Academic discourse among scientists in exile or let alone intellectual counter-publics cannot develop under these oft precarious living conditions. A rethink is needed. The United States of the 1930s and 1940s can serve as a model.
(Osteuropa 1-3/2025, pp. 411–420)