SCHOLARS AT RISKS SLOVAKIA
The aim of the project „Scholars at Risk Slovakia“ is to sucesfully establish the centre for the global and development education, which will focus on the status of academic freedom in context of global topics such as justice, human rights, peace, intercultural communication, education, democracy and citizenship, xenophoby and discrimination vs. tolerance and multiculturalism and war conflicts and terrorism. We pressume, that the topic such as academic freedom involves international, intercultural and global dimension, which is important for understanting the education as the form of society changes. SAR Slovakia is build on four activities – (1) Speakers series, (2) Special pop-up course, (3) Festival, (4) Working Groups, which will be developed through pedagogical and non-pedagogical university studies and they will also be available for the wider society as the public activities. Simultaneously, the important output of the cooperation in between the academics and students from the Slovak and foreign Universities, research institutions and educational organisations will be the creation of the specific study subject in field of global and development education under the name „Reporting in Freedom“. After attending this subject students will gain the abilities in the field of monitoring the freedom and human rights, creating the analysis, collecting data and measuring freedom in the society. The aim of the SAR Slovakia centre is to contribute to expansion of the knowledge about academic freedom in the world and protection of freedom of speech and development of the research and science in the world.
With the support of:
WHAT IS SCHOLARS AT RISKS?
Scholars at Risk is an international network of over 500 higher education institutions and associations (including BPI) in 37 countries dedicated to protecting scholars and promoting academic freedom. SAR provides sanctuary and assistance to more than 300 threatened scholars worldwide each year. By arranging temporary academic positions at member universities, Scholars at Risk offers safety to scholars facing grave threats, enabling them to continue their important work. Scholars at Risk also provides advisory services for scholars and hosts, campaigns for scholars who are imprisoned or silenced in their home countries, monitoring of attacks on higher education communities worldwide, and leadership in deploying new tools and strategies for promoting academic freedom and improving respect for higher education values everywhere.
The activities of SAR can be divided into three main areas:
Dangerous Questions: Why Academic Freedom Matters
ACTIVITIES
Speaker Series
Pop-up Course
Festival
Working Groups
Scholars at Risk Network to Establish SAR Slovakia Section
May 14, 2019 – Leaders from universities across Slovakia will convene on May 23, 2019 at Art Books Coffee in Bratislava to launch the Slovakia section of Scholars at Risk (SAR). The launch is organized by the Bratislava Policy Institute, which will act as the secretariat of the section during a three-year pilot phase.
The establishment of the SAR Slovakia section comes at a time of growing concern around academic freedom in Eastern Europe. “We need to promote academic freedom among students and scholars, the true values of university life. We need it in this time of commercialization,” said Viera Žúborová, the Executive Director of the Bratislava Policy Institute.
SAR Slovakia Roundtable in Bratislava
Bratislava Policy Institute organized on 11th of October in The Open Gallery on Baštová 5 Bratislava the first Roundtable under the section Scholars at Risk Slovakia. Until now the region of Central Europe hasn´t been the part of Scholars at Risk Network as none of the countries in this region had its own national section. BPI in cooperation with Scholars at Risk and the treasured support of SlovakAid and the Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation have successfully established one of the first in the region, a national section for The Slovak Republic called Scholars at Risk Slovakia. BPI sees this initiative as significant not only for Slovakia, but for the whole Central European region. As a coordinator it is the aim of BPI to create and promote the positive environment and provide efficient support to help the scholars at risk to openly and freely begin their new life also in the Slovak Republic.
SAR 2018 Global Congress
Our colleagues Michal Vašečka and Viera Žúborová attented in 23-26 of April the world congress of Scholars at Risk, where they explained and introduced the need for the SAR Section in Slovak republic and the state of establishment of this section. With this BPI innitiative is Slovak republic becoming another country taking part in this prestigious global network, which supports and encourages academic freedom and freedom of speech in Academia. The activities on which we are currently working will be crucial for the support of the liberal and open society, the human rights and freedoms and the human dignity.
