Dear friends,
as many of you already probably know from social media and other mailing lists, the Central European University is currently under threat from closing, as it is targeted by a new bill that the Hungarian government has proposed. More information can be read in the petition below as well as in the news [
1] [
2] [
3].
Sadly, while trying to cover the 'prestigious ranking' of CEU, most news sites skip the information about the university's extension and access programs, the profile of many of its faculty, staff and students as engaged scholars and activists, as well as its role as open research hub from the former socialist world and beyond.
CEU is, of course, not the only targeted academic institution these days, In recent weeks we have seen Recep Erdogan's Turkey target and purge individually and collectively signatories of the Academics for Peace appeal. We also saw Vladimir Putin's Russia close the European University of StPetersburg.
CEU is also not the only target of the Hungarian regime. Even only in recent weeks, the regime has dealt with most of its imagined enemy figures, dismantling the statue of Georg Lukacs, targeting Hungarian historians, and blocking the movement of refugees on the Hungarian-Serbian border.
The piece of legislation proposed by the Hungarian government is particularly cynical. It makes the operation of CEU - an institution with Hungarian and US accreditation - contingent upon the mercy of the US executive, i.e. of Donald Trump: yet another ally of Victor Orban and the aforementioned 'strongmen'...
Please consider signing this petition, but also sharing widely the news of what is happening and thinking of ways to mobilize your network. Petitions signed by academics have, sadly, become a token political repertoire often disregarded by the powers that be, but at present this can at least be a tool for awareness raising
Thanks, and sorry for cross-posting,
Mariya
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Mariya Ivancheva
Post-doctoral research fellow
School of Education, University of Leeds
Visiting Research Fellow, CILT, University of Cape Town
+359885326131
