Free to Think speaks with academic, policy analyst and human rights activist Mubashar Hasan. He describes how in Bangladesh certain research topics are off-limits, particularly those that threaten the power of the ruling class, and speaks from first-hand experience — Hasan survived 44 days of “enforced disappearance” in Bangladesh in 2017.

Now based in Sydney, Australia, Hasan describes the ‘mental prison’ Bangladeshi colleagues navigate when trying to balance doing their work with the risks they face daily: “I had to negotiate with myself, ‘Should I be silent? Or should I express myself?’

Hasan is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at Oslo University, Norway and an adjunct research fellow at the Humanitarian and Development Initiative at Western Sydney University, Australia. Learn more about Hasan’s work at: mubasharhasan.com

Free to Think speaks with Katrin Kinzelbach and Lars Lott, researchers behind the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) which assesses levels of academic freedom in 179 countries and territories from 1900 to the present.

Recent headlines suggest academic freedom is in retreat everywhere, but is it true? Katrin Kinzelbach and Lars Lott discuss the latest data from the AFI and how academic freedom may fit into wider trends of increasing political polarization worldwide. They describe how they collect data for and structure the report, and how researchers can get involved. The AFI is a collaboration between FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and the V-Dem Institute. Now in its fifth edition, the AFI is a valuable tool for academics and policymakers. With it, Kinzelbach says, “we can have an independent measure, updated on an annual basis, to hold states to account.”

Free to Think speaks with Achiro P. Olwoch, an award-winning writer, playwright, and filmmaker from Northern Uganda, and current scholar-at-risk and Weiss International Fellow at Barnard College in New York City. Achiro describes her recent play ‘The Survival,’ the impact of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Uganda, and how living in New York has made her a “bolder artist.” She also offers advice to fellow artists-in-exile: “It takes time. Allow yourself to learn, allow yourself to make mistakes, allow yourself to mourn, allow yourself to grow.”

This episode is guest hosted by Leona Binz, a Program Officer on Scholars at Risk’s Protection team, who has worked closely with Achiro since 2022 through SAR’s Practitioners at-Risk program.

Watch Achiro’s play ‘The Survival’ at the Criminal Queerness Festival at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York this June 2024.