The OSUN Global Visiting Fellowship for “Academics Facing Autocracy” scheme brings together at the CEU Democracy Institute colleagues from the hotspots of the struggle of researchers and universities against authoritarian political regimes’ attacks on higher education and academic freedom.

By creating an opportunity for critical reflection and dialogue between university instructors and researchers with experience of alternative higher education from various local contexts (including Belarus, Brazil, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Paraguay, Russia, Nicaragua, Turkey), the program enables the exploration of sustainable global strategies to resist authoritarian and autocratic attacks on education and critical thinking.

Presumably, strengthening cooperation between research, teaching and civic engagement is among the most urgent necessary steps to be taken. The fellows’ first meeting took place on February 23 where the team set out to establish a framework within which to study the various cases they know of academics resisting authoritarian regimes’ attacks on education by creating alternative ways of higher education. The program’s fellows have first-hand experience with such cases and are committed to share their knowledge and help victims of similar attacks by participating in a new initiative to examine how models of alternative higher education can be applied to different contexts and thus functional practices transferred transnationally.

Current fellows (2023): Almira Ousmanova, Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva, Noémi Lévy-Aksu, Lourdes Peroni, Daniel Palm, Thiago Amparo, Alexandr Voronovici. Learn more about them here.

The program is hosted by the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest.