Dates:
Thu, 10 Sept 2026, 11:00–20:00
Fri, 11 Sept 2026, 11:00–20:00
Sat, 12 Sept 2026, 11:00–20:00
Sun, 13 Sept 2026, 11:00–18:00
Universities are supposed to be places where difficult questions can be asked. Where language is tested, where positions are opened rather than fixed, where the discomfort of not knowing is treated as a precondition for learning rather than a failure. In theory. In practice, the picture in 2026 is considerably more complicated.
Scholars at Risk documented 395 attacks on scholars, students and institutions in 49 countries and territories between July 2024 and June 2025 alone, describing the findings as indicative of deteriorating global conditions for academic freedom. Academic freedom had declined significantly in 36 out of 179 countries since 2024, while it improved in just 8. The Academic Freedom Index 2026 sharpens the picture further: institutional autonomy in the United States has deteriorated by 50 percent since 2015. What both reports make clear is that this is no longer a crisis contained to authoritarian contexts. Attacks on higher education are rising in established democracies too. “Attacks on higher education not only imperil the lives, careers and wel...
Categories: Exhibition
Source: Event information supplied by Source: Ars Electronica Festival 2026; formatted by LocFeed..
