Academic Freedom and International Institutions

MODERATOR/CHAIR

Cecelia Lynch (ISA’s Academic Freedom Committee).

PANELISTS

• Bencharat Sae Chua, Director of Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom, lecturer at the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University
• Isaac Kamola, Director of AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, Professor of Political Science Trinity College
• David Kaye, Professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, former UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression
• Michael Lynk, Professor emeritus at the Faculty of Law, Western University, Ontario, former United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory

27 January  2026
9:00 am - 10:00 am (US Eastern Time)

The series is co-hosted by the ISA’s Academic Freedom Committee and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. The ability to teach, research, and speak on issues of public importance without fear of retaliation is a cornerstone of what academics do. Without academic freedom and institutional autonomy, universities cannot serve the common good. However, today the rise of authoritarian movements and governments around the world has included deliberate and sustained attacks on academic institutions as well as the silencing of students, faculty, and staff. This webinar series initiates a conversation within the International Studies Association (ISA) about evolving threats to academic freedom around the world, how academic freedom is understood in different environments, and what can be done to defend academic freedom in an international context.

This second panel in the series explores academic freedom and international institutions. What academic freedom means varies around the world, often emerging from specific institutional and legislative contexts and legal structures. Likewise, different international and regional organizations have developed their own articulations of academic freedom. This panel examines how academic freedom is articulated by the American Association of University Professors, the United Nations, the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas, the signatories of the Magna Charta Universitatum, and the Kampala Declaration. The goal will be to discuss important similarities and differences among the various articulations of academic freedom, while thinking about how the International Studies Association–as a professional association with scholars around the world–might understand and engage its commitment to academic freedom at an associational level.

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