Free Palestine, Free Speech: Political Expression and the Contemporary University (Hybrid Event)
Join us on Thursday, June 4 for a free symposium at the University of Sydney and online on the current crisis of speech in universities in the global north.
As Israel’s strangulation of Gaza and war on the wider region continues, some conclusions from the last thirty months must now be drawn. One of these is particularly stark: that the primary institutional response to Israel’s genocide from Australia’s universities, as from other universities in the global north, has been a far-reaching, ongoing campaign to stifle dissent and rewrite the principles that govern political expression on campus. If this turn to on-campus authoritarianism is not reversed, the damage to Australian public life will be long-lasting.
As early as April 2024, a UN Special Rapporteur was warning that “The Gaza crisis is truly becoming a global crisis of the freedom of expression.” This warning has been amply borne out at Australian universities, which have seen a barrage of new policies that empower authorities to constrain activism and stifle public discussion. These measures create a climate of heightened surveillance and censorship that severely restricts the ability of staff and students to debate and advocate on the most pressing moral and political crisis of our day.
To break through this imposed silence we invite you to a day-long symposium, to be held in-person and online. Drawing on the voices of ordinary staff members, as well as national and international experts, we aim to set the current crisis of repression at Australian universities in a wider, global context. Panel sessions will address topics including the forms and drivers of the repression of free speech, debates surrounding campus safety and civility, and strategies to resist Zionist censorship on campus. All those concerned for the state of civil and political liberties in Australia and elsewhere are invited to attend.
Program
9.15-9.30: Acknowledgment of Country and Introduction to the Symposium
9.30-11: Session 1: Forms of anti-Palestinian repression
11.15-12.45: Session 2: Drivers of anti-Palestinian repression
12.45-1.30: Lunch
1.30-3.00: Session 3: The safety/civility argument for repression
3.15-4.45: Session 4: Strategies of resistance
5-6.30: Closing plenary panel (Ghassan Hage, Jeff Sparrow, others TBC)
Each session will have a half hour discussion period. Other speakers include Ihab Shalbak, Gwenaël Velge, Lana Tatour, Sujatha Fernandes, Linda Briskman, Michael Edwards, Jordy Silverstein, Vince Caughley, Jason Todd, Hannah Forsyth, Na’ama Carlin, Andrew Brooks, Noam Peleg, Ann El Khoury, Grace Street, Nick Riemer.
Venue details will be announced soon. Registration is free but compulsory: please use the event RSVP form in this window to do so. All interested members of the public are welcome.