Authoritarian liberalism in higher education

New article on LSE’s higher education blog: “Is authoritarian liberalism a threat to academic freedom?”

Hiding in plain sight, hegemonic liberalism seeks to suppress non-liberal voices and endangers modern academia, warns Tamas Dezso Ziegler

Academic freedom is in the news again. While attacks from the authoritarian right and marketisation are widely held to have a negative effect on academic freedom, what is rarely discussed is the role of hegemonic liberalism in creating a conformist academia, even though we have important research on self-silencing in Western higher education. Liberalism is generally portrayed by the mainstream as a charitable, permissive intellectual stream favouring expanded freedoms and diversity, and those going against the liberal mainstream are labelled as harmful illiberals and threats to democracy. However, the overall picture is more complex.

You can access the article here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2024/04/11/is-authoritarian-liberalism-a-threat-to-academic-freedom/