Eröffnung des akademischen Jahres 2026/27

Academic freedom is increasingly under pressure. Internationally, universities and individual scholars face political interference, authoritarian restrictions, persecution and displacement. In Germany and elsewhere, debates about “cancel culture”, silencing and the boundaries of legitimate speech have likewise become highly polarised. At the same time, greater awareness of racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia has rightly challenged universities to reconsider which forms of speech and conduct should be accepted within academic communities.

The panel discussion for IPU Berlin’s semester opening will explore the tensions arising from these developments. What exactly do we mean by academic freedom, and why is it essential to the university? How can universities remain spaces in which established assumptions, personal convictions and collective certainties are questioned without treating discrimination or dehumanisation as merely another legitimate “position”? How should we respond when intellectual discomfort is experienced or described as harm, silencing or even trauma? Conversely, when does an appeal to open debate disregard unequal power relations and the vulnerability of those directly affected?

Universities cannot promise freedom from discomfort. Education requires encounters with unfamiliar, unsettling and sometimes objectionable ideas., Learning means bringing experience into crisis: not invalidating experience, but interrupting its apparent self-evidence so that reflection and transformation become possible. This task appears particularly relevant for a psychoanalytic university, which should be able to examine conflict, ambivalence, defence and the limits of what can be heard or thought. Social media echo chambers and increasingly fragmented publics make this capacity for sustained engagement across disagreement all the more important.

The event would also contribute to the anniversary activities of Scholars at Risk, of which IPU Berlin is a founding member, connecting the defence of scholars under direct threat with a broader reflection on the conditions that make genuinely open, pluralistic and responsible academic life possible.

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Dr. Phil Langer

Further information about the event will follow shortly.