Why Don’t We Learn from the Past? Academia Between Hubris and Risk

In this episode of Protecting Academia at Risk, we ask a pressing question: why don’t we seem to learn from the past? The host is Elena Trifan and together with Andrea Pető, Dina Gusejnova, Nadiya Kiss, Bernhard Kleeberg and Alina Dragolea, we explore how anti-gender discourses became state policies, why mistrust and crises undermine our ability to recognize patterns, how hubris and neoliberal reforms left academia vulnerable, and what it means to fight for decolonization in the middle of war. We end by looking at how anti-liberal forces are not only dismantling, but also building parallel institutions making higher education a key battleground for the future.