We are scholars and students from various disciplines dedicated to protecting the human rights and academic freedom of our colleagues around the world.
Protecting Freedom in Higher Education
Welcome to Endangered Scholars Worldwide
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Affiliated Program
The New University In Exile is an expanding group of universities and colleges publicly committed to the belief that the academic community has both the responsibility and capacity to assist persecuted and endangered scholars everywhere and to protect the intellectual capital that is jeopardized when universities and scholars are under assault.
The Library Access Initiative provides stranded endangered scholars with remote access to the electronic materials available via Consortium Member-Institution libraries.
Library Access Initiative
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FEATURED
Endangered Scholars Worldwide Deplores Attack on Freedom of Expression in Brazil’s Universities
On June 18, 2020, Endangered Scholars Worldwide learned that Jair Bolsonaro’s attempt to intervene in the appointment of university deans was rejected by the Brazilian Congress. While we are relieved to hear this, we must remember that this trend will be in place for the foreseeable future. This is not the first time that Bolsonaro’s administration has attacked the independence of higher education institutions. As we reported, in 2019, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub accused the universities of making a “mess” and that is why the government is slashing university funding by 30 percent, a move that is said to be motivated by complaints about partisan activities on campuses.
To imagine the most recent government intervention as an isolated act, which will end with the legislature’s refusal, is a mistake. This is part of a project to repress academic freedom in Brazil. Committed to science, the university has become an enemy of the president. The attempted intervention was a pretext for the imposition of far-right ideologies in Brazil’s higher education. That is why we join academic, intellectual, and political leaders in Brazil and other regions to decry attacks on the country’s universities in the name of Bolsonaro’s wider aggressive, anti-progressive, and fascistic agenda.
