Dr. Hana Kubatova speaks about academic freedom and neutrality to CIROS, CEES and the Austria Centre Leiden
In November 2024, Dr. Hana Kubatova (Charles University, Prague) visited Leiden to talk with students and our community about academic freedom and neutrality at the university. This meaningful event was planned by student leaders from CIROS (Community for International Relations and Organisations Students) with the support of the Center for Central and East European Studies and the Austria Centre Leiden.
Two students, Ms. Anna Kowal and Ms. Aadya Choudhary, asked Dr. Kubatova questions during the public event. Dr. Kubatova also joined students and faculty members for breakfasts, lunches and dinners in Leiden during her stay. Finally, she spoke about her new book, Christian Nationalism, Nation-Building, and the Making of the Holocaust in Slovakia, which is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
How the work of CIROS connect with the broader Leiden community? What do you want us to know about CIROS?
CIROS is a place for dialogue, mutual support, and intellectual and personal growth. We strive to create spaces and events where political science students can connect beyond lectures and workgroups. As a student organization, we try to do that through social events, fundraising for issues dear to our hearts, embassy visits and academic events with Leiden University researchers and lecturers. However, CIROS is also about bringing together students from different programs and faculties and academic staff of Leiden University. As an external officer and academic committee member, we both actively work to facilitate that. If there is one thing we would like a reader of this article to know about us, it is that we are open to meeting and getting to know you and are excited about new experiences and new people!
Tell us about your experience interviewing Dr. Kubatova for the event last semester. What did you learn about orchestrating an event like that?
Interviewing Dr. Kubatova was an amazing experience. Her openness to discuss with both students and professors present in the room made everyone feel welcome and heard, regardless of differences in political views or conceptualizations of academic freedom.
This atmosphere encouraged countless interesting and important questions from the audience, which we were truly happy about. However, the amount of them made our job as interviewers more challenging, as we had to manage our time well and prioritize some issues over others. While difficult, we both consider this a great learning experience for our future work.
Furthermore, working on this event taught us how important it is to make everyone feel welcome and taken care of, both the speaker and our guests. Seeing students, exchange students, and members of the academic staff of Leiden University feel confident to actively engage in the conversation with Dr. Kubatova was incredibly rewarding.
Why are discussions about academic freedom important for students today? What did Dr. Kubatova's words teach you about academic freedom more broadly?
While we, as students of political science, are only at the beginning of our life and academic journey we feel that the times we live in are becoming increasingly turbulent. This prompts many discussions not only during university classes but also during social and family gatherings. We consider differences of opinion as part of politics and part of academia and therefore care about the freedom to voice our opinions constructively and publicly.
Dr. Kubatova’s insightful discussions highlighted the challenges faced by pioneers of academic freedom and neutrality, ranging from political pressure to societal stigma. She pointed out that academic freedom empowers and protects the rights of those working in academia, but also facilitates, inspires and encourages students to pick up critical thinking skills and independently analyse issues and perspectives. Furthermore, Dr. Kubatova prioritized that protecting academic freedom is not a temporary procedure, but requires long-term oversight and practical engagement from all sectors within academia.
Our guest’s words and her approach to discussion with the audience taught us a lot about openness to different opinions without giving up our own. She encouraged and led by example discussions between people of different opinions that can be fruitful and result in broadening one’s worldview.