Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
Placement, Preservation and Perseverance: Afghan scholars, students and activists – 1st Annual Conference
November 1, 2023 — November 2, 2023
| Location: | MacOdrum Library |
| Cost: | Free |
Carleton University, in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, is organizing a two-days conference on November 2nd and 3rd, 2023, to discuss the crisis of academic freedom the state of higher education in Afghanistan. This is the first annual conference under the project ‘Placement, Preservation and Perseverance: Afghan Scholars, Students and Activists’, which is funded by the government of Canada’s International Development Research Center (IDRC). The conference will bring together scholars, activists and students as well as the wider Scholars at Risk community in Canada to discuss the debilitating effects of the Taliban takeover on Afghanistan’s education sector and academic freedom, and the country’s future development.
Since capturing Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have enforced numerous restrictions on learning and academic freedom, including a series of decrees that put an almost universal ban on women’s access to secondary and higher education. Taliban’s restrictions on education and other basic human rights and active persecution of academics and intellectuals have forced hundreds to flee the country.
The conference will map the magnitude of this crisis and discuss local and international responses to it, including supports to at risk and displaced scholars, students and activists. The conference speakers and participants will discuss and explore a diverse but inter-connected set of themes and topics about Afghanistan’s academic development and challenges. They will examine the achievements and losses in Afghanistan’s education sector over the last two decades from a critical and intersectional perspective while sharing insights on preserving and supporting knowledge networks both at home and in exile. Participants will also explore ideas about reconnecting displaced scholars and building intergenerational connections. Activism in exile and the role of diaspora groups and initiatives in responding to the current crisis and supporting Afghanistan’s future development will be another important topic of discussions