Academia in the authoritarian turn: Conversations on global conflict, militarisation and the right to dissent

We live in a global climate of increasing militarisation, unstable populist politics, and the normalisation of fake news. As scholars in a public university, we wish to initiate a critical discussion on tendencies to discipline civil society and academia which take place in the context of what Olaf Scholz referred to as a “Zeitenwende”. This decisive shift in policy subordinates social welfare and basic liberal rights to the priorities of militarization in the name of Germany’s reassertion as the leading power in Europe.
In Germany, censorship and cancellation have become disturbingly commonplace. The trend towards authoritarian attempts to silence critical, informed, scientific discussion becomes especially clear in relation to critics of the Israeli government’s warfare. Documen-tation and analysis of Israel's warfare implicates the German government, which supports Israel politically, in the name of “Staatsräson”, and militarily, profiting from arms exports.
These events at the University of Göttingen promote discussion of these topics in order to analytically understand the turn towards authoritarianism. Through informed and empirically grounded understanding we facilitate reasoned debate on militarisation and its consequences, while re-balancing the debate to focus on underrepresented peace-making policy perspectives.


Supported by:
Research Groups “Indian Religions, Diversity and Inequality”, “Society and Culture in
Modern India”, “State and Democracy”, and “Modern Indian History”, CeMIS
Arbeitsbereich Soziologie mit den Schwerpunkten Arbeit, Unternehmen und
Wirtschaft, Institut für Soziologie
Forschungsschwerpunkte „Kriegsaltlasten und Militarisierung“ und
„Alltagserinnerungen zum Sechs-Tage-Krieg“, Institut für Kulturanthropologie /
Europäische Ethnologie
Labor für kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung, Institut für
Kulturanthropologie / Europäische Ethnologie
Arbeitsgruppe Nanoskalige Oxidmaterialien / Energieforschung, Institut für
Materialphysik.


Events WiSe 24/25: PDF
Events SoSe 25: PDF

Further events are being planned.