Marina MiliÄ
In 2024â25, Serbiaâs leaderless, decentralised, nonviolent student movement made a rare thing happen: it made fear change sides. In 2026, the government has shifted from managing crowds to tightening procedural control, targeting the institutions that sheltered resistance. Universities, arguesâŻMarina MiliÄ, are now the frontline rebels â disciplined through labour rules and a financial âkill switchâ Read more
Serena Fraiese
On 23 November 2025, Birzeit University in the Palestinian West Bank halted all teaching to mourn one of its law students, killed by Israeli gunfire in a nearby village. The case, saysâŻSerena Fraiese, reveals how freedom crumbles in the world outside academe before it even reaches campus Read more
Saloni Pradhan
Saloni Pradhan examines the growing threats to academic freedom in India. From controversial curriculum changes to pressure on scholars, the government is eroding intellectual autonomy. The implications for India's democracy â and the country's future as a knowledge society â are significant. Read more
Catherine Moury
One of the reasons political scientists are silent on the Israel-Gaza conflict is the fear of being marginalised by the community, writes Catherine Moury. She suggests concrete actions scholars could take to avoid normalising what she â and many fellow academics â consider is nothing short of genocide. Read more
Adam Standring
Political neutrality in the face of injustice serves to maintain the status quo. Responding to Hana KubĂĄtovĂĄâs blog piece, Adam Standring underlines the moral necessity of organisations like ECPR taking a strong political stance in the face of violence in Palestine and a crackdown on critical voices in the West Read more
Markus Holdo
Edward Said reminded us that the history of higher education belongs to everyone and that its future depends on the imagination of teachers and students. Markus Holdo asks whether we can seize this critical moment and explore what it means to practice the utopian ideal of a free university Read more
Hana KubĂĄtovĂĄ
Political statements hinder the difficult conversations central to the mission of institutions of higher learning and scholarly associations. When institutions like ECPR speak collectively on political controversies, Hana KubĂĄtovĂĄ argues, they take academic freedom away from individual scholars and their dissenting views. Now is the time for institutional neutrality Read more
GĂĄbor Halmai
Hungarian universities are facing increasing interference from government. The recent dismissal of ZoltĂĄn ĂdĂĄm from Corvinus University in Budapest thus signals a worrying erosion of academic autonomy. For GĂĄbor Halmai, BalĂĄzs MajtĂŠnyi, and Andrew Richard Ryder, ĂdĂĄm's dismissal reflects a pattern. They argue that a broader political agenda is threatening academic freedom, and raising questions about Hungaryâs democratic integrity Read more
Š 2026 European Consortium for Political Research. The ECPR is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) number 1167403 ECPR, Harbour House, 6-8 Hythe Quay, Colchester, CO2 8JF, United Kingdom.
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