Background: The rise of authoritarian leadership and ideologies in Europe and beyond challenges the very basis of liberal democratic societies and their universities. Simultaneously, the weaknesses of liberal democratic institutions are visible in the decline of public services and underfunding of education. There is a need to reassert basic principles of democracy underpinned by human rights in order to reimagine the structures and forms of society that will best equip humanity to address the climate crisis. This requires interdisciplinary dialogues and cooperation.
Friday 9 June 2023
Panel 1. 9.30am – 11.00pm. Confusionism
Philippe Marlière (UCL) Political confusionism as a threat to liberal democracy
Break
Panel 2. 11.30am – 1.00pm. Legitimacy crisis
Yves Sintomer (Paris 8) The legitimacy crisis of liberal democracy: some lessons from the subaltern studies
Lunch
Panel 3. 2.00pm – 3.30pm. Can education help to save liberal democracy?
Julian Culp (AUP) Democracy and Education in a “Society of Broadcasters”
Jonathan James (UCL) French republican integration, British multiculturalism, and educational responses to terrorism
Tea break
Panel 3.45 pm – 5:15pm. Can we decolonise the curriculum?
Abi Branford (UCL) Early findings from the Empire, Migration & Belonging in English Secondary Schools Project
Karen Schucan Bird (UCL) Do Liberal Democratic principles and values support or undermine attempts to diversify/ decolonise higher education?