Expert Round Table at the AAU: Academic Freedom, Gender and Democracy

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In October 2018, the Hungarian government issued a decree prohibiting gender studies courses in all universities across the country. Vast national and international protests and petitions followed, coming from general public as well as the academic and professional community including numerous universities and scientific organizations.

The European International Studies Association (EISA) released a statement highlighting the importance of academic freedom, and the ability of universities to set their own curricula, as fundamental to the functioning of democracy.

The Political Studies Association (PSA) confirmed that gender studies form an integral part of understanding the complexities of social interaction, the impact of policy, and the dynamics of the economy. Similarly, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) maintains that gender studies is an internationally recognized discipline and an established multi-disciplinary area of research and teaching in the social sciences which helps to understand dynamics and power relations in our society and produces novel knowledge.

Speakers:

Andrea Petó, Professor from the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary and a Doctor of Science at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She has written five monographs, edited thirty-one volumes and her works on gender, politics, Holocaust and war have been translated into seventeen languages. In 2018 she was awarded the 2018 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values.

Tamas Lattmann a Senior Researcher from the Institute of International Relations in Prague and published author with specializations in International public law and humanitarian law.

Blanka Nyklova, an expert on gender issues in research and science and researcher at National Contact Centre - Gender and Science, Czech of Academy of Sciences. Ms. Nyklova specializes in research and science from the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The discussioin will be moderated by Zuzana Fellegi, IIR Reseacher and AAU lecturer focusing on gender, human rights and international law. Ms. Fellegi is a qualified lawyer and Attorney at Law admitted to the Czech Bar Association. She has earned double post-graduate qualifications in Human Rights and European Law at the Humboldt University in Berlin and in Comparative Politics at the Sciences-Po, Paris.