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April 24, 2025 I 5:00-7:30pm

Opening Remarks by Joel Towers, President of The New School

 
Panel 1:  The University Under A Global Authoritarian Turn

Governments and powerful social actors have both promoted higher education in the service of national power while seeking to place curbs on the teaching, research and political activity of scholars and universities. In 21st century China and India, governments have channeled impressive financial resources into higher education to create world-class research universities. At the same time, they have imposed new restrictions on the curriculum and restricted engagement with sensitive topics, including in some instances eliminating entire disciplinary programs. How broader political discourses and tensions in Indian and Chinese politics play out within their universities make for analogues - but also contrasts - to what is found in the United States. How can universities in our contemporary era produce innovation, new forms of knowledge, and new generation of thinkers needed to address multiple global crises? This panel will address the contradictions of academic prestige and academic freedom in contemporary India, China, and also the United States, and consider the challenges of international academic exchanges in the current environment.

Moderator: 

Mark W. Frazier: Co-Director of India China Institute

Panelists: 

Craig Calhoun: University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University   

Apoorvanand Jha: Professor of Hindi, University of Delhi (Recorded Remarks)

Kellee Tsai: Distinguished Professor, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University