More on #MeToo Activism in Latin America

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The 13 July 2018 issue of University World News includes Maria Elena Hurtado’s article “Ten Universities Still Occupied in Fight to End Machismo”: The so-called ‘feminist wave’, started in mid-April, that took over by force 22 Chilean universities or faculties in demand for improved sexual harassment protocols, better conditions for female…

Erdogan Assumes More Direct Control over Turkish Universities

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Over the past decade, the Erdogan regime in Turkey has been targeting opposition groups, especially in the military, the judiciary, the news media, and academia. These attacks escalated dramatically after the attempted coup in July 2016. Despite the widespread repression, Erdogan managed only a relatively narrow victory in the most recent…

Professor Sacked for Union Activity

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following item is from Labour Start, which reports on international labor issues: Maxim Balashov, a professor of mathematics, has been working at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) for nineteen years. He also serves as chair of the trade union at his university, known as UNISOL. The bosses…

Central European University May Leave Hungary

BY HANK REICHMAN Even as the European University at St. Petersburg, Russia, struggles to survive, another independent university in Budapest may pick up stakes and move in the face of continued hostility from the right-wing nationalist government of Viktor Orban.  “We can’t go into another academic year like this. We’re in a holding pattern but…

European University Under Siege

BY HANK REICHMAN Last month I had the privilege and honor of addressing a colloquium of faculty and advanced graduate students at the European University at St. Petersburg (EUSP), Russia, which offers advanced degrees in the humanities and social sciences. My topic was “The AAUP and the Struggle for Academic Rights in the U.S.”  The…

CAUT Protests Death of Iranian-Canadian Professor

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has written to Iran’s leader protesting the death in prison of an Iranian-Canadian university professor who was accused of spying by Iranian authorities.  Kavous Seyed Emami, a dual-Canadian national, was arrested in January, and died in February in a Tehran prison, ostensibly by his…