Venue: Henry-Ford-Building, Garystr. 35, 14195 Berlin

2023 not only marks the 75th anniversary of Freie Universität Berlin's founding, it is also the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's iconic speech on our campus. Keeping in mind his statement that this university “must be interested in turning out citizens of the world” and his idea of universities as incubators of freedom, we will look at issues of academic freedom from a historical perspective as well as within today's contexts – and think about how to shape academic freedom in the future.

The keynote lecture on “The Historical Roots and the Future of Academic Freedom” by Prof. Dr. Anita Traninger, professor of Romance Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and 2023 winner of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, will be complemented by a personal account of Prof. Dr. Dr. Conrado Hübner Mendes, professor of Constitutional Law at the Universidade de São Paulo, on “When Democracies Cease to Defend Academic Freedom.” The lectures are followed by a drinks reception.

To register please see here.