International Academic Freedom Day

IAFD is now established and was celebrated this year by many organisations and groups, not least the European Commission, the Guild of European Research-Intensive Institutions and the European Research Council. The Guild has launched an annual academic freedom lecture series to take place on IAFD. The European Commission statement was reported in the Brussels Times.

We had 13 speakers at our online event on the evening of 20 May: Dennis Hayes (AFAF), Tess Ashen (PGSAFAF), Tim Crowley (Dublin AFAF) William Mackesy (Alumni For Free Speech), Boudewijn Bouckaert (Hypatia – Belgium), Catrin Thomas (Free Speech Wales), Amy Laurent (Bristol AFAF), Sarah O’Reilly (Free Speech Ireland), William Hagerup (Agora Debate Club London), Jamie Murphy (Irish libertarian commentator), Samiksha Bhattacharjee (UCL Libertarian Society), and Abhishek Saha (London Universities’ Council for Academic Freedom). The evening concluded with a talk by Steven Greer (Bristol AFAF) on his new book Islamophobia and Free Speech.