HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER HUB
WORKING PAPER SERIES

Working Paper No. 14
Universities as Sites of Activism
and Protection

Image by Sally Pilkington, Morph Creative

Paul Gready and Emma Jackson
February 2023

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The Human Rights Defender Hub Working Papers SeriesThis Working Paper Series aims to make research related to HRDs freely accessible and to promotefurther discussion and research. The papers in this series present recent research findings, highlightunderexplored issues, and set out theoretical or methodological approaches relevant to researchconcerning defenders. Working papers are intended as works in progress. Publication in this series
should not preclude publication elsewhere.
The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by the
University of York. Comments on each paper are welcomed and should be directed to the author(s).
The Working Paper Series is edited by Pippa Cooper. It is supported in part by a grant from the OpenSociety Foundations.

Previous papers in the series
Lucy Harding
No. 1 July 2015
Protecting Human Rights, Humanitarianand Development Actors
Maik Müller andNo. 2 October 2017
Clemencia Correa
Integrating a Psychosocial Perspective into
Human Rights and Protection Practices: A Case
Study of Peace Brigades International (PBI) Mexico

Janika Spannagel
No. 7 March 2019
The Effectiveness of Individual Casework on HRDs:
An Empirical Study of the UN Special Procedure
Cases 2004–2015
Emilie Flower
No. 8 December 2019
Pushing Back: Supporting Human Rights Defenders
and Social Movements in Contexts of Shrinking Civic
and Democratic Space

Polina Malkova
No. 3 January 2018
Exploring the Term ‘Human Rights Defender’through the Lens of Professionalisation in Human
Rights Practice: A Case-Study of Russia

Eric Hoddy and John Gray
No. 9 May 2020
Integrating a Psychosocial Perspective into
Human Rights and Protection Practices: A Case
Study of Peace Brigades International (PBI) Mexico

Katie McQuaid
No. 4 March 2018
Defenders Across Borders: Congolese Human Rights
Defenders in Uganda’s Refugee Regime.

Rhiann Holloway
No. 10 April 2021
Artists as defenders: disability art as means tomobilise human rights

Sylvain Lefebvre
No. 5 April 2018
‘Making’ the Territory: The Spatial Politics ofPeasant Communities

Protection International
No. 11 May 2021
Collective Protection Networks for Remote Rural
Communities

Irina Ichim
No. 6 January 2019
The Capacity Building of Human Rights Defendersand (Dis)Empowerment: An Analysis of Current
Practice

Wanjeri Nderu
No. 12 October 2021
Promoting Wellbeing, Mental Health and Self-Carefor Women Human Rights Defenders in Kenya
Tamsin Mitchell
No. 13 February 2022
In search of protection, justice and the truth:
journalists’ responses to impunity in Mexico and
Honduras

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About the authors
Paul Gready is Professor of Human Rights and co-director of the Centre for Applied Human Rights(CAHR), University of York. Most of Paul’s current research focuses on the development of criticaland constructive alternatives to the mainstream. This work is informed by the belief that the current
political moment requires new ways of thinking and working. Paul is the co-editor of the Journal of
Human Rights Practice and currently holds the UNESCO Chair in the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders and Expansion of Political Space, based at CAHR.
paul.gready@york.ac.uk
Emma Jackson is a research associate at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York,
whose work explores the role of higher education in protection. Emma completed her MA in Education
and International Development at the Institute of Education at UCL and is now a PhD student in the
Department of Education, University of York. Her PhD research focuses on higher education andmarginalised groups and the protection of knowledge. Emma is the student representative for the
British Association for International Comparative Education (BAICE) and is an associate lecturer at theOpen University teaching International Comparative Education.
emma.jackson@york.ac.uk

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Pippa Cooper for her help in conducting some of the interviews. Invaluablecomments on an early draft were provided by Fiona Anciano, Jan Boontinand, Alejandro Castillejo-Cuéllar,
Pippa Cooper, Tine Destrooper, Ruth Kelly, Masha Lisitsyna, and David Maughan Brown.

Suggested Citation:
Gready, P. & Jackson, E. (2023) Universities as Sties of Activism and Protection. Human Rights Defender
Hub Working Paper Series 14. York: Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York. Available at:
hrdhub.org/working-papers

About CAHR and the Human Rights Defender Hub
The Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre basedat the University of York. CAHR hosts the Human Rights Defender Hub, which aims to: strengthen the
rigour and impact of research on, with, and for HRDs; facilitate spaces where scholars, practitioners,
and defenders engage in critical self-reflection on existing practice and explore new frontiers; anddisseminate research findings to a broad range of actors to impact on policy and practice.
For further information about CAHR and the HRD Hub, contact:
HRD Hub @ Centre for Applied Human Rights
University of YorkYork YO10 5DD
Tel: +44 (0)1904 325830

Email: hrdhub@york.ac.uk
www.york.ac.uk/cahr
www.hrdhub.org

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Executive summary
Universities are currently experiencing both opportunities and challenges as sites of activism andprotection. With regard to opportunities, they often have more resources, status, and leverage than civilsociety groups, and frequently have more political room for manoeuvre - or face less harsh repression- than activist counterparts. Challenges include privatisation, budget cuts, and enhanced government
scrutiny and ‘closing academic space’ (ICNL, 2019). In this complex context, universities display ‘two
faces’ (Bush and Saltarelli, 2000). They can both foster and inhibit freedom of expression; provide ‘safe
spaces’ and be sites of violence; and function with greater freedom than civil society organisations andbe subject to specific forms of state control and capture (Choudry and Vally, 2020(a); ICNL, 2019).
This Working Paper seeks to identify and support good university practices in support of activism
and protection, of people, ideas/values, and different kinds of knowledge. It starts by analysing thevalues-base of universities. A commitment to academic freedom is widespread; a broader commitment
to social justice is also prevalent. These values provide institutional entry points to collaborations
with NGOs, social movements and community groups. That said, universities are large and complex
institutions, articulating multiple and sometimes clashing values, which can make the implementationof value commitments partial and messy. Some of these value tensions place universities at thecentre of wider societal debates e.g. whether universities should provide ‘safe spaces’ for marginalised
identities and experiences, or an open space where ideas, including offensive ideas, are tested throughdebate. Other tensions strike at the core of what kinds of institutions universities should be: businesses,
run for profit and to benefit the economy, or public institutions committed to the wider public goodand values such as justice and equality.
The language or vocabularies in which universities and civil society actors frame values also frequently
differs - this research indicates that neither ‘human rights’ nor ‘protection’ are widely used orunderstood within university settings. As such, there is a need for both academics and activists tomake their values and priorities legible in the language and for the activities of potential partners.
The Working Paper moves on to consider universities as sites of activism, looking at the role of universities
as institutions, academics/staff, and students. This discussion is particularly interested in the uniquequalities that universities can bring to bear in support of partners and in the service of progressive
agendas (legitimacy, status, access to knowledge, resources, local and global networks), which in turnhelp to explain the relative autonomy universities enjoy in many parts of the world in comparison tocivil society actors. From the literature and interviews, the paper highlights four specific areas where
universities can add value: 1) As instigators of protest, for example where students act as ‘unruly subjects’(Boren, 2001) or through the work of ‘scholar activist’ (Lennox and Yildiz, 2020). 2) As incubators ofideas and values (such as citizenship and free speech), and organisations. 3) As collaborators andpartners, for example through legal aid clinics and other forms of applied pedagogy. 4) As protectors ofparticular groups of people (activists, scholars, refugees), values, and diverse forms of knowledge (activist
knowledge and indigenous knowledge).
This last function, protection, is then explored in more detail. A central argument of this paper is thatthese three forms of protection – of people, values, and knowledge - are interdependent. People whoare marginalised or oppressed are more likely to feel protected if their experiences and world-views arereflected in, and help to shape, the values and knowledge provided by host universities. Similarly, support
for academic freedom and decolonisation agendas will be given substance by the incorporation of people
who articulate such experiences and world-views. If universities can deliver on this agenda, they will makean important, even defining, contribution to the protection of political and democratic space.
The Working Paper continues by documenting three further examples of innovative practice: theunique roles that academic centres (as opposed to departments) can play as ‘NGOs within theCentre for Applied Human Rights 4

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university’; the potential for universities to adopt a human rights policy to define and monitor their own
human rights responsibilities (using the example of Ghent University); and the possibilities for UNESCO
Chairs and Networks, with their focus on collaboration, capacity building and networks, to complement
engagement with the UN human rights machinery.
A more detailed consideration follows of the very real challenges to pursuing activist and protection
agendas within and with universities. These range from the bureaucratic slowness and conservatism of
universities, to gaps between values and implementation, the tendency to water down commitments asthey are institutionalised or to step back from commitments when facing difficult issues, and increasingstate restrictions through ‘closing academic space’ and state capture of core university functions anddecision-making.
Given the challenges universities are currently facing, it may seem ambitious to call for an enhancedrole for universities in activism and protection. In doing so, various shortcomings of universities, andthis Working Paper, should be noted. Universities are elite institutions, which raises questions about
who has access to higher education, what kinds of activism is supported, and what an umbrella ofprotection includes and excludes? Interviews were mainly conducted with academics working on
human rights, or in associated disciplines, leaving unaddressed the question the roles other disciplines(the sciences, computer studies and IT) could play in support of or opposition to activist and protection
agendas, and underplaying the role of other staff at universities (administrators, librarians andarchivists). Many of the people interviewed for this study work at prestigious, metropolitan universities,
meaning there is work to be done to understand complex local higher education landscapes (public /private, urban / rural, research / teaching oriented, religious / secular, etc.), and what different locations
and orientations enable or constrain in terms of support for activism and protection – for example,
what role do rural agricultural colleges play in supporting land rights and environmental activist?
Further, while the paper is largely written in a universal tone, and attempts to chart important global
trends, it is also true that attention to context is vital – the room for manoeuvre of any given university
is largely defined by its local, national and regional setting. Many of the examples showcased andactions recommended require that a degree of political space exists, and a future-oriented action
agenda will be easiest to pursue in similar settings. In countries where the concepts of the autonomous
university and academic freedom are being dismantled, or are already non-existent, those based inhigher education may find little in what follows that resonates with their daily realities. Althoughseeking to support those attempting to undertake progressive work in such settings is if anything more
important. All of this is to say that this Working Paper is the start of a conversation, not an endpoint;
it is an invitation to conduct further research, teaching and knowledge exchange to fill the gaps andcorrect the biases in what follows.
Despite these shortcomings, this Working Paper advocates an enhanced role for universities in activism
and protection for the following reasons. First, universities occupy a position of relative privilege andautonomy in comparison to NGOs and other civil society actors. They have the capacity, resources andlegitimacy to act in ways which others do not. Second, the attacks on democracy and political spacethat are taking place all around the world are negatively affecting, and will inevitably continue to affect,
universities. There is an instrumental as well as a principled, or values-based, rationale for universities
taking action. Third, the size of universities means that there are multiple ways in which universities canintervene, and diverse actors who can take the lead or support off-stage and in other secondary ways.
Universities themselves may take a stand on certain issues, but academics, other staff, and students
frequently act independently of formal university positions and policies to advocate for and collaborate
with activists. Finally, this initial scoping research indicates the huge range of innovative activities which
are already taking place in the fields of activism and protection.
The Working Paper concludes with a set of action points, drawn from the paper and wider research.
These action points are not a set of guidelines (setting out how universities should behave, orCentre for Applied Human Rights 5

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standards they should uphold), nor do they follow a traditional pattern in human rights of targeting thestate e.g. focusing on the actions of the state, and developing a workable framework for monitoring
repressive state practices against higher education institutions by stakeholders (ICNL, 2019). Rather,
they represent a provisional attempt to set out a research, teaching and knowledge exchange agenda
through which universities and civil society can forge thicker collaborations and support activism,protection and ultimately a vibrant democracy. The action points represent a point of departure fora new UNESCO Chair, in the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Expansion of Political Space,based at the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York, and held by one of the authorsof this paper (Paul Gready), and for associated partners and networks. Such actions could include:¢

Better understanding the potential of working with and through often multiple university values andwhere they complement one another, where they generate friction, and how they can be mobilised
to support activism and protection activities.

¢

Assessing the language in which such activities are framed, by universities and partners in civilsociety, with a view to making communication legible for all parties and facilitating collaboration.

¢

Developing and supporting the four-fold categorisation of the roles that universities can play inactivism: instigator, incubator, collaborator, and protector.

¢

Analysing the potential of and challenges facing student activists and scholar activists.

¢

Understanding in a similar way the potential of and challenges facing or posed by academic
disciplines that are not represented in this Working Paper (the sciences, computer studies and IT),and other university staff who can support or resist activism and protection work (librarians andarchivists, administrative staff, etc.).

¢

Identifying the roles that different kinds of universities can play in supporting activism and protection(public / private1, metropolitan / provincial / rural, religious / secular, etc.).

¢

Mapping the different ways in which universities are providing protection to local and global activists(affiliation, fellowships, organisational registration, collaboration through teaching and research,training, acting as financial hubs or agents, etc.), and assessing the added value they bring to suchprotection work.

¢

Researching the importance of, and links between, the various forms of protection discussed in thispaper - values, people, knowledge - and the contention that they can be mutually reinforcing andsupport a move from a reactive ‘protection from’ to the more proactive and enabling ‘protection to’.

¢Supporting universities seeking to diversify the forms of knowledge they showcase in teaching andresearch, whether under the umbrella of decolonisation or in other ways, with a particular focus on
activist knowledge.

¢

Championing, documenting and sharing innovation and good practice in university support for
activism and protection, for example further exploring the potential of academic centres, humanrights policies, and UNESCO Chairs and Networks.

¢

Better understanding the challenges and constraints for universities, their staff and students asinitiators of, and partners in, activist and protection agendas.

1

Appe and Barragàn (2017: 482, 484) note that in Ecuador private universities are more likely to collaborate and have formal agreements with thedevelopment NGOs they interviewed.

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Table of Contents
Executive summary

4

Introduction

8

Literature Review

9

Values and Language

9

Universities as Sites of Activism

11

Universities as Sites of Protection

15

Empirical data

18

Values and Language

18

Universities as Sites of Activism
Universities as instigators: University, student and staff activism
Universities as incubators: The ‘birthing’ of ideas and organisations
Universities as collaborators: Legal aid, teaching, networks

21
22
23
24

Universities as Sites of Protection

26

Case Studies of Innovation and Good Practice29

Key Challenges to Activist and Protection Agendas

30

Conclusion and Action Points

32

References

34

Appendix 1: Interviews

38

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Introduction
This Working Paper is motivated by two developments. The first is that universities globally are facing
a set of challenges. Challenges range from privatisation to diversification (public / private universities,
religious / secular universities, etc.), enhanced government scrutiny and ‘closing academic space’ (ICNL,
2019), and budget cuts. The wider political environment in which universities operate is characterisedby a rise in populist politics, democratic backsliding, increased authoritarianism, and shrinking civic
and political space. Against this backdrop issues of risk and protection relating to activists and civilsociety, and attacks on political and democratic space, have garnered attention in the academy andfrom human rights practitioners. Universities are also facing more progressive challenges, to decolonise
teaching and research and to be more inclusive and accessible. In this complex context, universities
display ‘two faces’ (Bush and Saltarelli, 2000). They can both foster and inhibit freedom of expression;
provide ‘safe spaces’ and be sites of violence; and function with greater freedom than civil society
organisations and be subject to specific forms of state control and capture (Choudry and Vally, 2020(a);ICNL, 2019).
The second motivation is a more parochial set of developments at the host institution where theauthors of the paper are based – the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York.
Protection, and associated activism, have been at the heart of CAHR’s activities for over a decade. The
Centre has hosted almost 100 human rights defenders (HRDs) since 2008 on a Protective Fellowship
Scheme for HRDs at risk. Alongside this scheme, CAHR’s HRD Hub developed a research profile on risk
and security for activists, and on shrinking political space. At an institutional level, the University ofYork has recently become a University of Sanctuary, and in its University Strategy 2030 embraced beinga university for the public good.2 Mobilising these internal developments, and against the backdrop of
the external environment set out above, CAHR co-created with partners an applied research agenda
on universities as sites of activism and protection. The research and practice agenda is an attempt toreflect on and enhance CAHR’s own work, to learn from innovative initiatives at other universities, andto support multi-directional knowledge exchange and sharing between universities and civil society on
relevant themes. From 2023, these activities will be supported by a new UNESCO Chair, hosted at CAHR
and held by one of the authors of this report (Paul Gready), on the theme of Protection of Humanrights Defenders and Expansion of Political Space.3 This report represents an invitation to continue
discussions about the activities to be supported by the UNESCO Chair and partners.
The goal of this paper is to analyse and support the diverse roles that universities can play inchampioning and protecting activism and activists. It draws on 22 interviews with academics andpractitioners to begin to map existing practices and innovations, and to draw up action points tostrengthen the role universities play in these fields (see Appendix 1 for a full list of interviewees).
Interviewees were selected by a mixture of purposive and snowball sampling, drawing on the networksof the authors and CAHR for the initial group approached. As such, the sampling privileges those whoare predisposed to be interested in university activism and protection. Some interviewees chose toremain anonymous, while others asked to be named in the research. The interviews were analysedfor core themes, which were in turn aligned with themes from the literature review to structure theWorking Paper.
The literature review and analysis of empirical data follow the same structure: an exploration of thevalues-base of universities and the language in which values are framed; universities as sites of activism;

2 University of York ‘Vision for York – Mission and Strategies: the University Plan’ Available at: https://www.york.ac.uk/about/mission-strategies/
vision-for-york/ (accessed 09/08/2022).
3

A further shortcoming of the paper to those noted in the Executive Summary is that it is informed by these experiences, and written fromperspectives informed by this particular institutional context and history.

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and universities as sites of protection. The concluding sections of the paper document case studies
of innovation and good practice, the main challenges universities face in pursuing this agenda, andsome action points for academics, other university staff and students who are interested in better
understanding and supporting activism and protection.

Literature Review
Values and Language
This section of the paper identifies values as central to the purpose and work of universities. It sets out
the multiple and clashing values currently at play within universities; highlights academic freedom andsocial justice as two important progressive values; assesses challenges in implementing these values;
and identifies some of the languages in which core values are framed.
Universities are values-based institutions. Winter and O’Donohue (2012: 565) argue that ‘values
underpin all aspects of academic and university life’. The challenge is that the values-base of universities
is contested, and universities often articulate multiple, sometimes contradictory, values simultaneously.
For example, any suggestion that universities are sites of protection, or more generally can advocate
for social justice, must contend with the fact that they are facing a myriad of challenges and pressures,
spanning privatisation, new managerialism,4 diversification, enhanced or continued government
interference, and budget cuts. Alongside external pressures for change, internal campaigns also havea values component, such as student protests and calls to address inequalities, enhance access anddecolonise educational practices. Student protests are not always progressive, and may advocate
exclusion and discrimination, or reproduce divisions in exile (Chinese / Hong Kong students). As such,contestations are both externally and internally driven, and also simultaneously champion conservativeand instrumental roles for universities, for example to serve the economy and produce graduates forbusiness, while also seeking more political and broader societal engagement from universities. The
latter include the important role of universities on issues like Black Lives Matter and decolonisation.
While acknowledging this complexity, this research seeks to support the third mission of universities,
going beyond teaching and research to address social, economic and cultural challenges in society(Gourley, 2012).
The core value of universities has traditionally been academic freedom.5 This implies the freedom ofacademics to teach and research without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage, andfor students to learn in a similarly open environment. As such, academic freedom is a core componentof democracy and a vibrant public sphere. Universities can be viewed as having a special or different
status within societies, ‘a special place, devoted to the pursuit and transmission of knowledge’ (Altbach,2001: 206). Understood in this way academic freedom includes the propagation of new ideas andcontroversial or unpopular views. Among the key value tensions here are the following: 1) Whether
academic freedom is a negative attribute, implying the absence of restrictions, or a positive one
requiring the construction of an enabling environment (especially for historically marginalised groups
and viewpoints). 2) Whether universities should provide ‘safe spaces’ for marginalised identities andexperiences, seeking to secure protection from certain kinds of views, or an open space where ideas
are tested through debate, and the oxygen of democracy determines which ideas live and which perish.

4 New managerialism sees education as market-led rather than serving the public good. The ‘purpose of education is increasingly limited todeveloping the neo-liberal citizen, the competitive economic actor and cosmopolitan worker built around a calculating, entrepreneurial anddetached self’ (Lynch, 2014: n.p.).
5

Other linked values include freedom of expression and of assembly and association.

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The particular positioning of universities means that issues like culture, religion and identity politics,
including particularly contentious examples like transgender rights, are both divisive on campuses andplace universities at the forefront of wider societal debates.
A second value of relevance to this research which is prioritised by some universities is a commitment
to social justice or social responsibility.6 A commitment to social justice for universities represents
an attempt to address the following question: ‘how can we contribute to the creation of a more
equitable, respectful, and just society for everyone?’ (Zajda, Majhanovich, and Rust, 2006: 13). Thisrole has evolved from Dewey’s emphasis on ‘engaged education’ in the 1920s (Reason, 2013), whichemphasised the role of universities in enhancing personal and social responsibility through promoting
civic engagement. UNESCO has repeatedly championed a social role for education, for example in its
guidebook for planning education in emergencies and reconstruction:
Faced with the complexity of current and future global challenges, higher education has thesocial responsibility to advance our understanding of multifaceted issues, which involve social,economic, scientific and cultural dimensions and our ability to respond to them. It should leadsociety in generating global knowledge to address global challenges (...) (UNESCO, 2010: 2).
A commitment to social justice can take a variety of forms, spanning local to global levels, including
citizenship education, community engagement, support for democracy and socio-environmental
causes, and protection of people and organisations at risk (Eriksson, 2018; Gourley, 2012; Symaco andTee, 2019). Two further points about social justice are pertinent. First, its definition is contested, andneeds to be understood in context – for example, the work of Freire, Borda and others means boththat the academy’s relationship to social justice in Latin America is deep and particular, and that theregion has been a source of global learning on approaches such as the pedagogy of the oppressed andparticipatory action research (Appe at al. 2017: 17-20). Second, social justice, like all progressive values,
can be co-opted and depoliticised as they are adopted within universities. Writing about Thailand,
Boontinand (2021) argues that both citizenship / civic education, and the broader notion of social
justice, have been co-opted by universities to serve the agenda of the market and state – to mean goodcharacter, personal responsibilities and duties, and non-political participation and community service,rather than as championing critical inquiry or enabling students to engage with issues like humanrights, justice and democracy.
The two core progressive values articulated by universities – academic freedom and social justice –can complement one another, with the latter building on and extending the former. However, it isalso the case that the civil and political rights underpinning academic freedom can be advocatedwith little attention given to the socio-economic underpinnings of social justice, and that overlooking
the indivisibility of the two values can be detrimental to an academic freedom that seeks to include
previously marginalised groups and viewpoints.
Value commitments are typically registered in university strategy and policy documents, as well
as vision and mission statements (‘university for the public good’ – University of York, or ‘sociallycommitted university’ – Ghent University). Implementing values in a meaningful way is often
challenging. For policy to bring about social change, theoretical propositions and normative
assertions need to be translated both internally within the institution and externally in local andglobal engagements (Colucci, et al., 2012; Gourley, 2012). Value translation often needs to address
historical legacies. For example, many South African universities now champion values of equity andtransformation, but continue to struggle to overcome architectures, monuments, languages andcurricula associated with an apartheid and colonial past, and while operating within a competitive

6 Appe et al. (2017) argue that the concept of social responsibility attempts to combine the strengths of the market and social justice.

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market logic (Oxlund, 2010). The #RhodesMustFall movement demonstrated that values had tobe embedded in pedagogy, curriculum and infrastructure to be realised by the student population(Symaco and Tee, 2019). Value translation therefore has to address the multiple roles and institutional
complexity of universities. The ability of universities to deliver on progressive values is on the one handenhanced by their local and global influence, the legitimising potential of knowledge, their human andfinancial resources, and their expected autonomy from government. On the other hand, this potential
is curtailed where these preconditions are not met or where commitment to the values is superficial(Gourley, 2012; Sharma and Sharma, 2015; Steele and Rickards, 2021; Singh, 2011).
A final issue in this section relates to the language in which value commitments are framed. A coreterm adopted in this paper, protection, is seen as reactive, paternalistic and even patronising by some
(Evans, 2008). The use of particular terms and frames can change the effectiveness of and response
to universities’ initiatives and activities. Language is highly contextual, in relation to place, politicalenvironment and issue. Writing about responses from universities to refugees in Poland and Austria,
Kontowski and Leitsberger (2018) advocate the term ‘hospitality’, defined as an act of welcoming ‘those
who are strangers’ (Sutherland, 2006), on the grounds that it allows refugees to be recognised as
individual actors with particular skills and talents, and is more potent than a focus on abstract ‘rights’to education. The term ‘sanctuary’ has also been widely used in relation to refugees, for example in the
USA during the Trump administration and within the University of Sanctuary movement. In the USA,
Tierney et al. (2017), suggest that concrete action to support refugees can be undermined by labelsand designations which are either considered vague or produce a political backlash. Work on sexual
violence usually employs terms that imply pro-active (rather than reactive) responses and agency, suchas prevention (Young, 2003).
What this section indicates is that a set of values and language framings exist which allow universities
to talk about and engage in activism and protection activities. However, these values and framings are
not shared by all universities, face internal competition and critique, and do not always align with thevalues and framings of civil society partners and activists. As such, an action agenda on these issues islikely to include supporting better alignment, translation and redefinitions to enhance mutual legibility,
comprehension and collaboration.

Universities as Sites of Activism
This section moves on from values and language to explore the various activist roles universities,
academics/staff, and students can perform. It investigates the unique identity that universities havein terms of activism, and the autonomy or relative autonomy that universities can enjoy as an activist
space. The discussion then considers how this position can be used to benefit social change andengage with communities and civil society organisations, identifying four specific roles for universities:
instigator, incubator, collaborator, and protector. Finally, the section concludes by identifying thebarriers facing protest and activism for both students and staff.
It is important to note at the outset that in many parts of the world a component of closing civic
and political space is a ‘closing of academic space’. The International Center for Non-Profit Law (2019)highlights four kinds of restriction on universities:¢¢

Restrictions on universities as institutions, including legislative measures, interference ingovernance structures and leadership, financial cuts, and the control of staff hiring, security of tenure
and promotion.
Restrictions on academic freedom and activity, which range from curtailing freedom of
expression (notably to criticise the government or on particular topics), interfering in teachingcontent and programmes, and travel restrictions, to the chilling effects of self-censorship.

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Restrictions on students, extending from eroding autonomy in relation to admissions, to politicising
student-related decisions (admission, grading, funding) and a disproportionately harsh response to
student activism.
Undermining university legitimacy, by criminalising academics, applying ‘foreign agent’ or antiterrorism laws, and through the securitisaton and militarisation of campuses, negative public
discourse by governments and the misuse of emergency laws.

The cumulative intent of these measures is to label universities as ‘dangerous’ to public morals andnational security. These attacks are increasingly taking place within the context of a wider populist
politics that denigrates evidence-based arguments, experts and elites and seeks to both undermine
the autonomy of universities and stigmatise them as oppositional actors (see Box 1). Many of theserestrictions are similar to those used to target NGOs.

Box 1: The ‘closing of academic space’ in Turkey
A core challenge of the current political moment is governments seeking to reshape universities
in their own image, using a form of ‘state capture’ to create ‘one dimensional’ universities –homogenous, hierarchical, conservative, and bureaucratic (Doğan, 2022). Using measures acrossthe four categories of restriction outlined above, the neo-liberal authoritarian regime of President
Erdogan and his AKP government has pursued this objective. Attacks on academics in Turkey
became more extensive after the 2016 coup attempt and the ‘Academics for Peace’ declaration(advocating for a renewed Kurdish peace process), with 15 private universities closed, and over
7,000 academics ‘cleansed’ from universities. Amendments to the Higher Education Law during theCovid-19 pandemic introduced further restrictions. This attempt at ‘pacification’ is the antithesis of
the vision of universities championed in this paper (Doğan, 2022; Özcan, 2020).
Depending on the context, however, it is also true to say that universities often still have a degreeof autonomy that allows them to act in ways that other organisations, such as NGOs and social
movements, cannot. This autonomy arises from a range of factors, including legitimacy, status, accessto knowledge, resources and local as well as global networks. At times, universities act institutionallyand explicitly as oppositional actors, opposing governments and their policies which infringe on humanrights. One example is the already-mentioned ‘sanctuary’ status adopted by some universities in the
USA in order to protect students threatened with deportation by the Trump administration (Tierney etal., 2017). Universities can also provide a space for their constituent actors, such as students and staff,
to protest and engage in activism. A final factor of note is that the autonomy and status of universities
can add to the political cost of government oppression, making universities a valuable ally as well as apotential source of protection.
It is useful to categorise the roles that universities can play in activism as follows: instigator, incubator,
collaborator, and protector (the latter role is addressed in the next section). Universities have along history of instigating activism, disrupting societies and agenda-setting through critical debate,highlighting injustices and inequalities and being at the heart of protest and social movements.
Historical examples include the 1960 Greensboro sit-in in the USA, the anti-apartheid student protestsof the 1970s and 1980s in South Africa, and the Tiananmen protests in China and the role of students
in the Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia, both in 1989 (Hall, et al., 2013; also see Choudry and Vallyeds, 2020). Students as ‘unruly subjects’ have often led such protests (Boren, 2001). While recent
student movements in places such as Iran, Chile, Hong Kong and South Africa initially arose in partfrom issues internal to universities, they also spoke to wider societal challenges and in so doing gained
traction from supporters outside of the academy. The #RhodesMustFall and subsequent #FeesMustFall
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and inequalities, prompting wider calls for institutional as well as societal change (Daniel, 2021).7 Suchstudent activism has particular qualities based on the short-term tenure of students at universities (seeBox 2).

Box 2: The nature of student activism
The short tenure of students at universities makes student activism ephemeral and fleeting – aconveyor belt that any succeeding cohort can step off, making ‘usable histories’ of activism andintergenerational learning difficult to gather (Choudry and Vally, 2020: 2). But it also renders suchactivism generative, uniquely unbound by established codes and structures of activism – e.g. thoselinked to economic production and tied to earning an income – and a laboratory for alternative
futures. Students occupy diverse positions within wider national protests, for example sometimes
being in the vanguard initially and subsumed in wider protest dynamics over time. The global
movement of students enables extraterritorial or diaspora activism that can focus on the homecountry and/or issues of global concern (Zeilig and Ansell, 2008). Again, it is important to note that
not all student activism is progressive.
‘Scholar activism’ involves working towards social change through academic activities, including teaching
and research. Situating scholar activism at the heart of the complex value base of neo-liberal universities,
Richter at al. (2020) use the term ‘tempered radicals’ (see Meyerson and Scully, 1995) for those of us who arecommitted to social justice within and outside the university, but are nonetheless complicit in educational
institutions that are elitist and often dominated by other values. Such academics work ‘at the hyphens’of scholarship and activism, the academia and civil society, internal and external concerns, individual
achievement and a collaborative ethos, doing work that is often invisible in terms of decisions aroundappointments and promotion. Other scholarship associates scholar activism with creating new forms ofknowledge production, prioritising the knowledge of ‘lived’ and marginalised experience (Lennox and Yildiz,2020); seeks to make more visible the role of scholar activists from the South (Freire, Borda) as pioneers
in community based research (Gutberlet et al., 2014); and highlights the importance of ‘symbolic capital’(peer and public recognition) and ‘cultural capital’ (having skills that are in short supply, and greater financial
and other forms of autonomy) to surviving as scholar activists in authoritarian settings (Geer, 2013).8 The
academic activity of scholar activists varies enormously, ranging from ‘resourcing activism’ (Derickson andRoutledge, 2015), for example by using time, technology, space and expertise to advance the agendas ofexternal collaborators, to creating organisations and delivering activist outputs. During the conflict in Sri
Lanka, for example, the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) [UTHR(J)] was formed to document
human rights abuses by all sides – ‘[s]oon half the university staff in Jaffna became members… The idea wasto use the University to build something that would offer hope to the wider community’ (Hoole, 2009: 125).
Finally, it is worth noting that when universities are researched as sites of activism, the focus is almost
always on students or academic staff. This ignores a large group of other staff who can and do support
activist causes: librarians and archivists holding or hiding particular collections; administrative staff
supporting activist or refugee students, or turning a blind eye to certain kinds of activity; and the solidarity
provided by staff running specialist units on equalities and inclusion or sexual violence (Lawless, 2017).
Second, universities can serve as an incubator of ideas and movements. In conflict settings, forexample, universities can both reproduce and even accentuate the divides within the society, or modeland in a sense prefigure a more inclusive future. In the former category, Russell (2002) describes how

7

Labour and student unions have also been important in activism addressing internal, university concerns such as pay and pay inequalities(gender, race), precarious contracts, casualisation of labour, and related issues (Woodcock, 2020).

8 Geer (2013) notes that the March 9 Group for University Autonomy in Egypt was not dominated by social scientists or academics from thehumanities, but rather had medics and mathematicians at the fore.

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conflict forged the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka into a mono-ethnic space, with wartime practices
and structures persisting after the conflict ended. In contrast, universities can play an important role indocumenting human rights violations, post-conflict peace-building, conflict resolution and transitional
justice (Milton and Barakat, 2016; Millican ed., 2017; also see Hoole above). Similarly, universities werecrucial drivers for independence movements, and in the training of postcolonial political leaders aswell as a cadre of new civil servants. In such settings, universities move beyond incubating ideas andmovements, to become incubators of a new state. The example below (Box 3), of Queens University
Belfast, provides an example and framing of a university as an incubator across these three settings.

Box 3: Queens University Belfast as a ‘zone of civility’
While acknowledging its complex current value base and past history, Brewer (2017) argues that
Queens University evolved to become a zone of civility (Kaldor, 1999) in the Northern Ireland conflictand peace process. By this he means that the university was a space apart (turning the traditional
aloofness of universities into a positive), a political as well as a physical space. Zones of civility
provide counter logics to war by establishing settings where the rule of law and political consent
trump violence as a way of organising social relations, and in which security, safety and protection
can be provided. Specifically, the university played this role by:n Enabling students to experiment with identities beyond conflict identities, and expand theirhorizons to a world beyond the conflict.
n Conducting research on the conflict that generated local and comparative knowledge as well as‘soft skills’ for students on collaboration and inclusion.
n Incubated the Catholic middle class and hence the local civil rights movement.
n Modelling a new inclusive society through its own structures and policies, notably an equality
agenda including gender equality (Brewer, 2017).
Both within and beyond conflict settings, where sufficient autonomy exists universities can serve as
incubators for organisations and movements that go on to perform significant roles in wider society.
In the realm of ideas, universities can incubate forms of activism, citizenship, freedom of expression,equality and inclusion, and support for democracy through their teaching, research and wider politicalcultures. The ‘citizenship function’, for example, is not limited to the curriculum and cannot be
exhausted in citizenship education alone; rather it relates to the full range of university purposes andfunctions. As Crick (2000: 145) notes: ‘Universities are part of society and, …, a critical part which shouldbe playing a major role in the wide objectives of creating a citizenship culture’.
A third activist role for universities is that of collaborator. To make collaborations with external activist
groups meaningful requires going beyond asking external participants to take part in predeterminedresearch or teaching, to rather base such work on the priorities and questions of external stakeholders,
co-produce responses and challenge barriers to participation and activism (Derickson and Routledge,2015). There also needs to be mutual benefit, such as access to people/communities and real-world
challenges and impact for the university, alongside access to status, credibility and resources forcommunities and external partners. A study of development related university-NGO collaborations in
Ecuador in the context of shrinking political space and sustainability challenges, found that the gains
for the NGOs of student internships, short term projects and programming, and capacity building
interventions included enhanced legitimacy, reaching new audiences, strengthened networks, andincreased space for dialogue and advocacy – but such collaborations did not meet the funding
challenges faced by NGOs (Appe and Barragán, 2017).
In short, the terms of engagement and distribution of benefits in social justice work will informwhether collaboration is impactful and sustainable. In terms of research collaborations, extensive

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scholarship exists on how to make collaborations fair and equitable (Leach et al., 2016; Rethinking
Research Collaborative, 2018; Stevens et al., 2013), and on the forms such collaborations should takee.g. communities of practice (Wenger, 2015). Collaborations also provide a useful training ground incitizenship for students, expanding their capacity to understand and participate constructively insociety (Arthur and Bohlin, 2005: 2). At a macro-level, collaborations can help universities navigate thecomplex environments within which they are located (for example, in relation to different cultures,values and religions). This is illustrated by the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, which formed
links with a range of grassroots NGOs during apartheid, thereby helping the university inform and cocreate policy and values in a challenging political environment (Gourley, 2012).
The roles identified above that universities can play in activism and societal change – instigator,
incubator, collaborator – can be undermined by both societal and institutional barriers. Several barriers
have already been mentioned, including attacks on university autonomy and the individualistic natureof much academic endeavour, which can undermine cohesion within the academy and devaluecommunity engagement as a priority. Further barriers to external engagement arise when there arecultural and political differences between and within academic and external communities, a lack of
incentive structures e.g. policies around promotion and recruitment, and a paucity of resources forfaculty and staff to engage in initiatives (Kezar and Rhoads, 2001; Sylvester, et al., 2017). Value clashes
can also hinder activism. For example, the clash between economic priorities and a social justiceagenda, and the tension between universities as open spaces and safe spaces, which can fuel activism
and protest but also lead to friction on campuses between diverging viewpoints. Finally, universities
may go so far as to collaborate in cracking down on protests and activism, sometimes in alliance withthe state, thereby becoming complicit in human rights abuses.
While there are internal and external barriers to university engagement with activist causes, theirrelative autonomy in comparison to civil society, the diverse actors who can be activists (academics,
other staff, students), and the distinctive roles that universities can play – instigator, incubator,
collaborator, protector – explain the role that universities have played in protest in the past and suggest
their potential to elevate activism as a priority in the future.

Universities as Sites of Protection
In this section the paper analyses universities as sites of protection, and specifically addresses theprotection of people at risk (activists, human rights defenders and refugees) and the protection ofdiverse forms of knowledge (activist knowledge and indigenous knowledge).9 A central argument of thispaper is that these forms of protection are interdependent, with the protection of values, people anddifferent forms of knowledge being inextricably linked, and integral to the protection of political anddemocratic space.
Recent years have seen an increase and formalisation in the protection of one category of activist, thehuman rights defender (HRD). The OHCHRs defines HRDs as ‘people who, individually or with others,
act to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner’ (Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
Defenders, no date). Currently across the globe, HRDs face a myriad of threats including freezing ofbank accounts, physical abuse, criminalisation, and threats of violence and imprisonment (CIVICUS,
2022). These threats can lead HRDs to engage with protection mechanisms at international, regionaland national levels, with temporary relocation often being a ‘last resort’ protection measure. Temporary
relocation schemes are run by organisations ranging from grassroots initiatives to big internationalNGOs, such as Front Line Defenders – but increasingly include universities as partners or lead hosts(Eriksson, 2018). Although universities are not newcomers to supporting at-risk individuals, their

9 The protection of values, the third field of protection, is addressed above.

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protection work has traditionally supported academics at risk in conjunction with partners such as
Scholars at Risk (SAR), and the Council for At Risk Academics (CARA) (Eriksson, 2018). This section
will explore the possible advantages of universities engaging further with other at-risk groups, such as
HRDs and refugees.
Writing as the (then) long-standing coordinator of a Protective Fellowship Scheme for HRDs at risk
at the University of York (UK), Eriksson (2018) identified the advantages of universities as protection
providers. The list below draws on Eriksson’s article and the personal experience of the Working Paper
authors while working at CAHR:¢

Providing a more neutral, safe space for the activist, under the radar of their home government, due
to the ‘special status’ of a university (autonomy, legitimacy).

¢

Offering a structure (the calendar of the academic year) and access to academic classes and training
on subjects such as international human rights law, digital security, presentation skills, advocacy andfundraising. Activists may have had their studies interrupted, and many lack formal training in humanrights (or related fields) having picked up knowledge through lived experience, activism and ad hoc
training.

¢

Assisting with practical issues – activists can enter the country on a research visa, for example. This
status as a researcher not only makes travelling more straight-forward, but the change in status fromrefugee or political opponent to scholar can also be an important form of recognition for the individual.

¢

Facilitating networking opportunities due to the unique positioning and influence of universities.
For example, Fellows at the University of York are supported to hold meetings with local groups andsupporters, NGOs and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which aids in building
their capacity and enhancing security.

¢

Providing ‘holistic’ support by using the size and diverse resources of the university to offer HRDs
counselling to deal with trauma, language training, and access to the local community and a ‘Friends’
scheme to provide social support.

A second category of people protected by universities is refugees. This was demonstrated in the2015 Syrian refugee crisis. About half of those who would normally be studying in universities in Syria
moved to Europe during the crisis (Streitwieser et al., 2017; Kontowski and Leitsberger, 2018). This led
to universities across Europe developing initiatives to support the integration of refugees (European
University Association, 2015; Kontowski and Leitsberger, 2018). In Austria, for example, there was a dramaticincrease in asylum applications in 2015 and while the government did not commit any extra resources
to higher education, public universities took it upon themselves to start an initiative, MORE, to support
refugees. MORE included help for refugees to prepare for degrees and to access German language courses(Kontowski and Leitsberger, 2018). Recent large scale refugee movements, and the associated flight ofacademics, have led to some innovative support and protection initiatives. These include the Austrian
National Scientific Council (FWF) programme allocating 1 million euros to incorporate Ukrainian researchers
into existing funded projects;10 and the Department of Education and British Council ‘Warm Welcome’scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate Afghan students in the UK.11

10 FWF Der Wissenschaftsfonds (2022) ‘Crisis Support for Researchers from Ukraine’ Available at: https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/news-and-mediarelations/news/detail/nid/20220314 (accessed 29/07/2022).
11 British Council (2022) ‘Warm Welcome Scholarship Scheme – information for UK higher education providers’ Available at: https://www.
britishcouncil.org/study-work-abroad/in-uk/warm-welcome-scholarships/higher-education-providers#:~:text=The%20Warm%20Welcome%20
Scheme%20aims,providing%20access%20to%20higher%20education (accessed 29/07/2022). There are also interesting student-led initiatives.
For example, Student Action for Refugees (STAR) in the UK encourages universities to create scholarships for asylum seekers. Available at: http://
www.star-network.org.uk/index.php" http://www.star-network.org.uk/index.php (accessed 27/08/2022).for asylum seekers. Available at: http://
www.star-network.org.uk/index.php (accessed 27/08/2022).

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Some universities make a formal declaration in relation to their role in the protection of refugees,
thereby linking their protection of values and people. Examples include the Sanctuary Campus
movement in the USA, and University of Sanctuary status. The goal of the Sanctuary Campus
designation during the Trump administration was to protect undocumented immigrants andinternational students so that they could learn, and to promote solidarity (Tierney et al., 2017). Securing
the University of Sanctuary status in the UK can send a strong moral and rhetorical message, andcomes with specific access-related measures, notably for refugees.12
In addition to human right defenders and refugees, universities can go beyond protecting individuals toalso protect organisations, as demonstrated in Box 4 below:

Box 4: The University of KwaZulu Natal protecting organisations under apartheid
During the repressive years leading up to 1994 [in South Africa]... the [University of KwaZulu Natal]
gave shelter to a whole range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) whose work in various
social causes was frowned upon by the apartheid government. At one time 84 different NGOs had
their headquarters on one or other of its campuses. (Gourley 2012: 33)
The protection of different forms of knowledge is a further field where universities can, and should, play
an important role. This section will conclude by discussing the role universities can play in diversifying
and decolonising knowledge in relation to two specific forms of knowledge traditionally devalued byuniversities: activist knowledge and indigenous knowledge.
Activist knowledge refers to experience-based knowledge originating from activists, including
community groups, NGOs, women’s groups, trade unions and grassroots associations (Funtowicz
and Ravetz, 1993). Activist knowledge is counterposed to ‘official’ sources of knowledge stemmingfrom academic, private sector or governmental research organisations. While activist knowledge isbased on lived experience, ‘official’ knowledge draws on expert research and insights (Funtowicz andRavetz, 1993). These different forms of knowledge align with academic debates about insider versus
outsider knowledge, and politically engaged knowledge versus objective, value-free knowledge. Activist
knowledge, like the Activist Scholar, is better established in certain disciplines (e.g. gender studies,social movement studies, development), than others, where the value assigned to a continual cycle oflearning in action occurring during long-term campaigns, short-term mobilisations and daily struggles ismore accepted (Choudry, 2020(b)). While it is important not to romanticise activist knowledge (Kelley,
2002), and to understand the opportunities for learning as going in both directions (Sears, 2014),
activist knowledge can contain ideas, insights, theories, and visions produced by people collectively
working for social and political change; showcase unexplored perspectives, archives, and otherhistorical material; and produce insights that challenge dominant approaches, histories and narratives(Vally and Treat, 2013; Choudry, 2020).
A second kind of knowledge that can be recognised, and protected, within universities is indigenous
knowledge. Again, historically universities have been a core part of the problem, prioritising aWesternised education system and content that has been responsible for shifting the culture in former
colonies away from indigenous knowledge (Steinberg and Kincheloe, 2008; Prakash and Esteva, 1998;
Marker, 2019). There is increasing support for the decolonisation of education, and recognition that thisinvolves the inclusion of indigenous knowledge (Coates et al, 2021; Heleta, 2016). Indigenous knowledge
is usually an integrated system of knowledge spanning human knowledge, beliefs and behaviours,

12 On Universities of Sanctuary, see https://universities.cityofsanctuary.org/ (accessed 14/02/2023). The role of universities in the Global South inproviding protection for refugees is under-represented in this Working Paper, and in published research more generally.

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and encompassing experiential knowledge and a holistic worldview that includes spirituality, sociocultural context, culture, life skills and more (Triyanto and Handayani, 2018). As with activist knowledge,a tension exists between Western knowledge which is seen as systematic, objective and rational,
while indigenous knowledge has been viewed as closed, parochial and irrational (Beckford, Jacobs,
Williams and Nahdee, 2010). Decolonising knowledge and universities means many different things.
For academics, particularly Western academics, it means de-centring themselves and striving to workin a deeply collaborative way (Briggs and Sharp, 2004). For students, it opens up the possibility ofunderstanding the experience of others, on their own terms, and of being exposed to other ways ofknowing (Rose, 2004; Waterman and Harrison, 2017).
The challenges facing the protection of activist and indigenous knowledges to some extent mirror
those facing university-civil society collaborations more generally. For example, academics may invite
participation, but resist the undoing of conventional research hierarchies (Marker, 2019). There is therelated danger that university engagement with different forms of knowledge will only be heard or
acknowledged if they are translated into mainstream forms of knowledge, or that fluid and dynamic
knowledge forms will be institutionalised and ossified by universities (Spivak and Riach, 2020; Briggs
and Sharp, 2004). Crucially, activist and indigenous knowledges need to be understood by universities
as sources of internal reflection, contextual recalibration, and transformative change. While there are
inevitably barriers to this outcome, including bureaucratic inertia and conservatism, as well as external
threats ranging from funding cuts to direct oppression, if knowledge is understood in this way thethree forms of protection – values, people, knowledge – can be mutually reinforcing. People who are
marginalised or oppressed are more likely to feel protected if their experiences and world-views arereflected in the values and knowledges provided by host universities. Similarly, support for academic
freedom and decolonisation agendas will be given substance by the incorporation of people who
articulate such experiences and world-views.
Delivering this holistic vision of protection – people, values, knowledges – is a significant challenge
to universities, but also carries the potential to move beyond ‘protection from’ to ‘protection to’.
This means a shift beyond forms of protection that are reactive, predicated on managing risk andsecurity, and largely based on physical protection for individuals, to a form of protection that is
proactive, agenda-setting and more holistic, linking protection and activism, and placing organisations,communities and wider systemic change centre-stage in pursuit of the protection of political anddemocratic space.

Empirical data
The discussion of empirical data which follows mirrors the structure of the literature review, focusing onvalues and language, universities as sites of activism, and universities as sites of protection.

Values and Language
The majority of interviewees identified academic freedom as the core value of universities, but
academic excellence was the main priority (Anon (b) and (c); Brems / Ghent; Chamberlain / Wits;
Vaddhanaphuti / Chiang Mai). It is important to note that academic freedom and excellence canalign as a single value, but can also pull in different directions, for example if the latter constrains thediversity of research undertaken and knowledge recognised under the guise of narrow performance
metrics. Several interviewees identified academic freedom as an entry-point for human rights-related
work – a lot of activity that ‘might look like protection’ happens ‘through that term’ (Anon (d)) – andNGOs confirmed that their pitch to universities for support was framed in such a way that it alignedwith the defence of academic freedom (Dyvik / ICORN; Wordsworth / CARA).

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Social justice as a core value is interpreted differently depending on a range of variables (public /private university, political context, etc.). Framings for social justice include assertions that universitiesare ‘socially committed’ (Brems / Ghent), ‘a private university in the public interest’ (Anon (d)); free toaccess for students (Sigal / Buenos Aires); and so on. In particular political contexts, such as transitions
to democracy, universities and university programmes can be set up to reflect and shape this context,
as incubators of ideas, values and states:
The Central European University (CEU) … was established to support the intellectual academic
and policy work to build capacity for newly opening societies of the post-communist region ofcentral Europe… It was supposed to train the new generation of political agents to help reformthe governments… opening up to develop new understandings for justice and protection ofrights… Not to transfer the knowledge from the wise West to the backward East, but to actually
generate ideas, and to learn and to focus on generating new knowledge. (Shtokvych / CEU)
There was also widespread acknowledgement that the values of universities are multiple andsometimes contradictory or unclear (Chamberlain / Wits). Sigal referred to the values base as ‘plural’(Buenos Aires), while Mills used the term ‘variable’ (Dundee). At times values can clash, such as
when neo-liberal pressures and priorities co-exist with progressive commitments (Mills / Dundee) orwith democratic accountability structures within universities (Sigal / Buenos Aires). Values can also
be performative, ‘trotted out’ at certain times and for particular audiences but lacking clarity andsubstance (Mills / Dundee). Finally, the size and internal dynamics of universities makes consistencydifficult and feeds values clashes. The ‘accent’ can shift on the basis of changing leadership (Castillejo,
Los Andes), diverse staff composition and views (Anon (e)), and differences between institutional
conservatism and pockets of progressive activity (Castillejo / Los Andes; Anon (d)).
Values also change over time, informed by wider societal and political change. Universities often havecomplex histories, in which they have played different roles in society over time. In the quote below
Anon (b) discusses the evolving interface between Makerere University and Uganda:[T]he university used to be that place, very vocal about issues, especially of democracy and humanrights and actually for the longest time it was practically unheard of for a pro government student
leadership to take effect. The university was always seen as that place that was different, nonconformist… very strong political candidates for democracy emerged from Makerere University
and it had been like this for the longest time. Then somehow it became easier for the State to put
in their own candidates. It seems as if the State had somehow infiltrated the student body. In thelast two years… the energy and the power has returned because of the Bobi Wine13 energy with theyouth… But you can see that somehow it is no longer predictable that the university is going to bethat centre of struggle and energy… there is so much towing of the line you feel that is trickling downfrom the top leadership of university, through to the faculty and also the student body.
The language in which values are presented and framed is also significant. Human rights as a term anddiscourse is not well understood in universities. Exceptions include where a human rights policy has beendeveloped for the university (Brems / Ghent), or when planning and strategy documents explicitly reference
human rights e.g. an Institutional Development Plan based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(Anon (e)). The term ‘human rights defender’ is also poorly understood, with some interviewees preferring
the term ‘activist’ (Chamberlain / Wits). Among the critiques of the term human rights defender are that it isa ‘foreign framing’, and that it is passive and lacking agency (Brems / Ghent; Chamberlain / Wits).14

13 Bobi Wine is a singer and politician. He stood for President in 2021, but lost an election that was widely seen as flawed. Wine has a considerable
following, particularly among young people in Uganda.
14 A further reason that human rights is poorly understood may be that the role and responsibilities of universities in implementing human rights is
not well defined (Zwaan / Justice and Peace).

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Finally, few universities use the term protection as part of their everyday discourse.15 Oomen(Roosevelt) stated that ‘the word protection does not surface that much’, Castillejo (Los Andes) that
protection is not part of our ‘daily’ or ‘institutional conversation’, while Anon (d) noted that protectionis ‘a very human rights term, I would not use it in academic settings’. The term may be difficult totranslate, or its meaning may be changed through translation. For example, Castillejo (Los Andes)
stated that in Spanish the word protection would only translate to physical protection, and would beseen as a militarised term. Protection was criticised for implying vulnerability, weakness, inability, andthe need for support from higher powers (Brems / Ghent; Shtokvych / CEU). Others were wary of
the term on the grounds that it was too political, ‘potentially a quagmire’, as it necessitates politicalaction and protecting people from foreign governments (Fildes and Mills / Dundee). Where the term
protection is used in university settings it tends to relate to the physical protection of particulargroups, such as scholars at risk (Wordsworth / CARA) or in certain circumstances, such as protectionof students on campus or during protests (Baubeng-Baidoo / Pretoria). In a very few cases, protection
work resonates with government policy and priorities e.g. in Scotland and the Netherlands protection
programmes for human rights defenders involving universities are funded by the government (Fildes
and Mills / Dundee; Zwaan / Justice and Peace).
Research participants argued that attempts to engage universities in human rights-related work need
to be framed in languages with which they are familiar and comfortable – in short, activist agendas
need to be ‘legible’ in, or ‘plug in’ to, university agendas (Mills / Dundee – see Box 5 below). Thiscan be done in two ways. First, progressive work can be pursued through alignment with academic
priorities and terms that push for external engagement. These include in-vogue buzzwords likeacademic excellence, knowledge exchange, impact, and internationalisation (Castillejo / Los Andes;
Gad / Hildesheim; Vaddhanaphuti / Chiang Mai). Anon (d)) talked about how teaching and learning forstudents can be enriched by applied human rights work, providing transferable skills, improving theteaching of lawyers, and enhancing prestige – in short, as ‘activist, but also excellent’.
Second, an entry-point for human rights is provided by social justice-related terms that are powerfulat the interface between universities and the societies in which they operate. These include agendas
linked to sustainability (climate change, environment); access and inclusion (diversity, respect);
supporting refugees and sanctuary (Anon (d); Wordsworth / CARA); safeguarding (safety, security,
wellbeing: Anon(c); Shtokvych / CEU); and decolonisation e.g. at University College Roosevelt in The
Netherlands a decolonisation summer school has become a platform for activist causes such as Black
Lives Matter (Oomen / Roosevelt). A significant number of universities are now committed to the
Sustainable Development Goals, which although often interpreted through a largely environmental
lens, do provide some opportunities for work on human rights and protection.

Box 5: How NGOs can align their work with university priorities:
Find a person/centre/department who is interested.
n Be prepared to work with the university, don’t try to change it.
n Learn what the university needs from other partners in order to engage.
n Understand and follow their academic lead, priorities and standards.
n Don’t think they are an NGO.
n Burden share, if collaborators are afraid of the risks (financial, reputational).
Dyvik / ICORNn

15 Anon (c); Brems / Ghent; Chamberlain / Wits; Castillejo / Los Andes; Mills / Dundee; Oomen / Roosevelt; Shtokvyth / CEU; Sigal / Buenos Aires;
Vaddhanaphuti / Chiang Mai.

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One important conclusion from this analysis is that careful consideration of language, values, ethics
and politics is multi-directional. Universities and their staff must consider such issues in external
engagements, but civil society actors also need to take these concerns into account if they want tocollaborate with universities.

Universities as Sites of Activism
This section revisits the characteristics that make universities valuable initiators of, and allies in, humanrights and social justice activism. These include institutional qualities such as autonomy, legitimacy andstatus, which feed into capacities to perform four specific activist-related roles: instigator, incubator,
collaborator and protector (the latter role is addressed in the next section). As well as opportunities,
the section also explores barriers to university support for activism.
Interviewees confirmed that universities, although themselves often under threat, usually enjoy greater
autonomy than civil society organisations in oppressive contexts to hold open activist space. Anon(b), for example, painted a complex picture in which universities retained the capacity to ‘go around’
repressive measures:
Right now, in Uganda… with the NGO Act that has all these requirements for annual application
for licences, declaration of funds, declaration of areas of operation, with the Public OrderManagement Act, requir[ing] authorisation before public meetings can be held… we are seeing
this growing range of legislation that is reducing the space for people to speak, act and act out.
The university is still a good place to go around these things… and talk about different issues…
But there is also physical protection, Makerere is still a place where there is safety, you are stillokay to move around, so there is that physical protection where you will be given space to work,
to sit, to think. There are still those safe spaces for researchers, which you don’t find a lot in otherplaces.
The reasons given for the privileged autonomy and space of universities included that universities have
‘leverage’ (Sigal / Buenos Aires) and ‘weight’ (Baubeng-Baidoo / Pretoria): ‘They come with clout, I think
the power that universities wield in terms of how seriously they are taken is one of the most important
things to harness and to tap into’ (Chamberlain / Wits). Interviewees confirmed that these qualities
arise from a range of factors, including legitimacy, status, access to knowledge, resources, and local
as well as global networks. However, universities can also be affected by restrictions that hit societies
generally, with threats ranging from being ‘observed’ and monitored (Gad / Hildesheim), infiltrated andharassed (Anon (a)), to being closed down (Shtokvych / CEU). In short, having leverage, weight andpower is a double-edged sword, creating unique opportunities and challenges for universities.
The two quotes below provide examples of ‘autonomy in action’ for universities. The first describes thecapacity of universities to legitimise causes and organisations, reducing the ‘temperature’, ‘buying time’,and providing ‘space’ for activism to continue to breathe:
Placing the human rights discussion in an academic context helps to bring the temperature
down, helps make it feel a bit less of a threat… if you have an academic workshop that has a lotof civil society leaders and representatives on the university grounds, that is not the same as ademonstration. I am simplifying this but I think the universities should take responsibility andembrace this idea that just by lending their name and the mandate… kind of reformulating or
shaping it as an academic endeavour as a quest for knowledge and understanding rather thana human rights campaign… it buys time, gives additional space and intellectual resources. But it
also raises the level and profile of the human rights defenders that otherwise would not have thesame legitimacy. Being associated with higher education does contribute to the longevity andability of human rights defenders to do more. (Shtokvych, CEU)
The second quote underlines the complementary roles that universities and civil society organisations

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can play, with each separately having important strengths and weaknesses, but collaboratively having
the potential to create a ‘third space’ for activism:
They operate at different levels with different rationales and different agendas. When I worked
for the NGO, I had a lot of flexibility to do whatever I wanted to do. I could just go to a communityand start working on a case, file a case, defend a case, and go to the press… The university has
all these restrictions. But on the other hand, when I talk in the name of the university, I have all
the status in my favour… [it] makes people think I am saying something that is correct. When I talkfrom the NGO it was the other way around, I was like someone shouting who really needed toprove the point… On the one hand the Law School has a lot of power in terms of its word beingheavier and more powerful, but the NGO has a lot of flexibility and can fight on any front it wants
and can come and go and make alliances with fewer limitations… I think that the trick is to adjust
to where you are talking from. If I behave the same way as in the NGO I would be fired, and if
I behave in the NGO as I behave now I would also be fired! … The agendas and challenges aredifferent, and the leverage is different. (Sigal / Buenos Aires)
As this discussion already begins to suggest, interviewees confirmed the relevance of instigator,
incubator and collaborator roles for universities.
Universities as instigators: University, student and staff activism
In many parts of the world universities are at the centre of national protest, with politics very much‘within the university’ (Sigal / Buenos Aires). Universities perform this role in a number of ways, forexample nurturing dissent and challenging the state (Anon (a)) and defending academic freedom
and institutional autonomy as an act of resistance (Anon (d); Dyvik / ICORN). Often it is students
who provide the ‘energy’ to drive human rights and political agendas, on and off campus, and assuch they are seen as a threat by the state:
Of course, there is still that energy, the first thing that happens when there is a riot in
Kampala or a protest in Kampala for any reason, the first thing the security forces do at
the university [Makerere University] is close the students in their hostels and in their halls ofresidence and to close the main gate. So, nobody goes out and nobody comes because themoment you have a student body, that energy is there… (Anon (b))
Interviewees also gave examples of navigating and negotiating forms of activism and protest
through universities as complex institutions. Among the fault lines of complexity is the fact that
universities often are simultaneously where protest originates and (at least in part) the target of theprotests, and the challenge of adopting an advocacy position for large and plural institutions.16
Since about 2014 there have been successive waves of what has become known as#FeesMustFall in South Africa, which is a student social movement, and Wits [Universityof the Witwatersrand] has been at the epicentre of that… This has put a unit like CALS[Centre for Applied Legal Studies] in a very tricky position… and what that meant is that we
couldn’t represent Wits student protesters, because of the conflict of interest issues. But
we… formed a coalition of organisations providing support to student activists. And so wejust made deals that all of Wits’ cases would be referred to colleagues, but that in return
we would take on the representation of students from other universities. And that often
meant we were representing half the students in a protest in which part of that protest was
directed at Wits. And the university allowed that, and in fact sometimes even supported it…
(Chamberlain / Wits).

16 There are clearly other fault lines – for example, the human rights challenges that come with internationalisation and the different spatial sites ofuniversities e.g. NYU has global sites in Abu Dhabi and several in China (Anon (d)).

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I would say that in terms of public events the university usually has a voice supporting thegood causes, but not always. The university is plural, so it is very hard to have one unified voice
for the university going outwards. I can tell you about my work in the Law School… So, if I go out
and speak in favour of whatever cause, and I am not very clear I am talking only for the Human
Rights Centre and not the Law School then we will have a very big decision as professors will
have a different view, which in many cases is very conservative, as lawyers are conservative asa class. So, in many cases you need to be very, very careful, and this leads the Law School to beless actively involved than it should be in my view. Sometimes it gets involved, for example withthe law for abortion, a bit late, but it came… At some specific moments in time the Law School
took the microphone. (Sigal / Buenos Aires)
Universities as incubators: The ‘birthing’ of ideas and organisations
As noted in the literature, universities can serve as incubators of ideas and organisations or
movements. The role of universities in incubating ideas takes the form of a constant need to champion
critical thinking, academic freedom and social justice in diverse settings, and is reflected throughout
this paper. Some departments and centres articulate these values through support for specificorganisations. A complex set of relationships exist between the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS)
at the University of Witwatersrand and civil society groups. While CALS continues to host certain
initiatives and networks e.g. the Right2Protest collaborative project, it has served as an incubator oforganisations which are now independent entities. The Refugee Law Project has also been incubated(and protected) by being legally registered at the Department of Law, Makerere University. Finally, thework of the Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), at Chiang Mai
University, has been hugely important as a springboard for NGO and community activism in Thailand
and beyond. These university-NGO dynamics are highlighted in the quotes below:
The Law School… was responsible for the birth of a number of incredibly important social
justice organisations, because there were progressive academics who were setting up entities
that would enable them to practise, to represent and defend primarily initially the Trade Union
movement in South Africa. Those entities morphed into various NGOs that still exist today… In
the 1970s a bunch of academics were at the forefront of that, establishing what has become
Cheadle, Thompson and Haysom, which is a progressive leftist law firm that still specialises inlabour and representing employees and unions. And then they also founded CALS… and out of
CALS then grew at least 2 other NGOs.17 (Chamberlain / Wits)
I think one way in which there is progress is through non-mainstream academic institutions…
The Refugee Law Project for example is a project that was born of the [Makerere University] andit grew, it focuses on issues of advocacy for refugees and IDPs but also they have taken on issuesof LGBTI [rights] and because of the LGBTI component the Refugee Law Project was closed forover a year. It took a lot for the Department of Law… to negotiate with the government… thecapacity to work with an academic institution probably saved them. (Anon (b))
I think at the beginning NGOs in Thailand were not that well known, so at the beginning theuniversity, and particularly my centre played an important role in helping NGOs to plan theiractivities, and help them to evaluate their activities, and provide a space for NGOs to discussand to share their experience with students and with lecturers at our university. So that was
about 15 – 20 years ago… our Centre is trying to bridge the gap between university and civilsociety so that both can get to know each other and work together in helping the local people,
reducing the inequalities problem, and reducing conflict in resource management... That was at

17 The Aids Law Project became Section 27 (health rights and education), and the Litigation and Housing Unit of CALS broke away and formed theSocio and Economic Rights Institute (SERI).

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the beginning, but now NGOs are much stronger than 15-20 years ago, they can do their own
work without the dependence upon academics. They can speak about the problems they havein culture, or they can represent the villages and local people’s problems and they can talk to
the government. They can negotiate with the policy maker much more than academics likemyself. At the beginning, yes, they depend upon us, but now NGOs can do their own job without
depending upon the university. Except on some occasions, like in my case, I still serve as achairman of several NGOs. (Vaddhanaphuti / Chiang Mai)
Universities can offer important support for organisations (human and financial resources, legal advice,and for public universities the protection of being under the umbrella of a state institution). They
can also provide an environment that organisations outgrow. The ‘drivers of departure’ which leadorganisations to leave their academic host range from personal disagreements to practical challenges
e.g. linked to what you can and cannot do within a university and the difficulty of effectively trying to
run an NGO out of a university bureaucracy (Chamberlain / Wits).
Universities as collaborators: Legal aid, teaching / student research, networks
In this section the paper examines three forms of collaboration. These all attempt to develop
relationships between universities and other human rights and social justice actors that seek to harness
their complementary strengths (see Sigal, above).
First, the provision of legal aid and pro bono legal services by staff and students draw on various formsof collaboration. These services provide support for particular groups (students, activists and humanrights defenders, refugees); draw on external partnerships with other universities and legal providers,
NGOs and social movements (Chamberlain / Wits; Oomen / Roosevelt); and serve specific functions –for example, ‘remedial protection’ for defenders of human rights who have suffered attacks, ‘making
students and the legal community aware of things that may be happening in the dark’ (Sigal / Buenos
Aires), or ‘attended the courts when students are detained to defend them, pro bono’ (Trujillo Ariza /Venezuela). In such work, law schools and human rights centres explicitly act in partnership with others
to support activism, and may be able to do work that is too dangerous for others to undertake.
A second form of collaboration is the incorporation of activism and activists into teaching and student
research. Universities run courses that seek to integrate local and/or international activists. An exampleof the former is the Community Knowledge Learning Hub, University of Toronto Scarborough, which is acollaboration between Health Sciences, Development Studies, and three partner organisations working
with marginalised communities in Toronto. The ‘Community Leaders as Educators’ programme provides
such leaders with a university affiliation (which can be useful for grant applications), respite and space toreflect on their practice, opportunities to talk about their work, research support from students, small potsof money, and so on (von Lieres / University of Toronto Scarborough). Activist residence or protection
programmes serve a similar function, often for international activists. As Anon (b) notes, involving students
can provide not just invaluable support but also a layer of protection for sensitive work:
A good way of operating that we also do at … [Makerere University] is to engage students, I thinkthat is a good practice, it is one way of saying ‘hey, this is teaching ground’. Yes, we are doing
this work, yes, we are compiling a compendium of conflicts in Uganda. This is very sensitive
information, it involves actions by the State, by individual generals... You do it by working incollation with others and also you engage with your students. So that is a good example of how
we are trying to manoeuvre to protect our researchers and activists and trying to get the work
done as an academic institute. (Anon (b))
Courses incorporating activists and activism now take many forms. Law clinics (see above) can
also provide a learning ground for students. As with law clinics, many other teaching and research
opportunities engage students in problem solving for human rights causes. A further example ofinnovation is provided in Box 6 below:

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Box 6: Human Rights Advocacy Internship, University of Dundee
The module Human Rights Advocacy Internship at the University of Dundee is a credit-bearing
internship, run in collaboration with Scholars at Risk (SAR), an NGO advocating for academics andstudents at risk of or being targeted by their governments. SAR staff and the academic lead train
the students to design and run an advocacy campaign and contribute to SAR’s Scholars in Prison
project. This training maps onto the module’s academic content covering the political psychologyof persuasion and political sociology of advocacy and transnational networks. The module wasintroduced as an undergraduate offering in Politics and International Relations, and in 2021-22 wasoffered as a joint programme to taught postgraduate students as well. An average of three student
campaigns each year for a total of 12 individual at-risk scholars have been organised since themodule was introduced.
Tangible campaign outputs have included two Early Day Motions submitted by a Dundee MP in
the House of Commons in 2021 and 2022; the offer of scholarships by the University of Dundee
to students at risk of being targeted by the Belarussian government for their human rights
advocacy; and letters sent to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Scottish
Government Cabinet Secretary calling for government action on cases being campaigned for.
Students benefit by gaining practical experience of running an advocacy campaign as well as
developing skills in evaluation and critical reflection, and secure the practical and employability skills
needed to work in teams and develop a professional code of conduct, write reports, engage withstakeholders, peers, and audiences, and deliver time-bound outputs. Students are assessed on theirability to critically reflect on their experience of running the campaign using the academic literaturethat they have been introduced to on the module. The module also helps engender a community ofpeople in the university that are supportive of human rights.
SAR benefits from having additional voices amplifying their advocacy calls and sustaining a
network of academics and students who add their ideas and creativity to the advocacy work being
undertaken.
Edzia Carvalho, module convenor
Teaching initiatives serve to both take students out of the classroom as well as bring the outside
world into the classroom – they blur the divide between these two worlds. Where activist programmes
are challenged by or within universities, the strongest grounds for supporting them are innovationand student benefits, such as the acquisition of real-world experience and skills. Furthermore, bycomplementing academic knowledge with practical, real-world insights, they serve to pluralise anddiversify knowledge and develop a critical pedagogy. Finally, it is worth noting that these ambitious
collaborations come with challenges, which range from asking too much of activists, to ‘unease’ at themagnitude of the issues addressed, waning student commitment depending on the academic calendar,
and the lack of student local and contextual knowledge (Oomen / Roosevelt).
A third and final example of collaboration is the role universities play in networks, and the potential
and scale of university networks. In comparison to most NGOs, ‘the network of universities is of course
incredible… [they] are much bigger and have many more connections and possibilities and capacity’(Zwaan / Justice and Peace). Interviewees raised two main issues, the different kinds of networks towhich universities belonged (university networks / networks with diverse members, informal / formal
networks, and local / international networks), and the ways in which such networks add value toactivist agendas (divisions of labour, pooling resources, responding collectively to events or individual
cases, enhanced legitimacy). From the university perspective, there was a clear acknowledgementthat ‘universities cannot work in isolation… we need to link up and have strategic relationships withboth local and international networks and mainstream NGOs, they need support and we (universities)

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need support’ (Anon (b)) – in short, collaboration ‘strengthens the work that we are doing’ (Romero /Venezuela). Thus, the value of networks can derive from the diversity of their membership and thecomplementary activities conducted:(In South Africa) there is also something which we call the Public Interest Law gathering, which
is an annual gathering of everyone in the country involved in public interest law, so that is
NGOs, it is social movements, community activists, legal practitioners and private practitioners,
academics, students and so it is an annual thing that happens which is based in the university
and organised primarily out of the university. (Chamberlain / Wits)(In Uganda) I will give you the example of X, was arrested, and the kind of support that wegot from the international community and local civil society – [local civil society] issued a daily
brief about what was transpiring and local partners monitored the situation… The international
partners were important in mobilising funds quickly and getting the message out quickly… andhighlighting the issue on different platforms. (Anon (b))
Collaboration is important across universities as well. Formal networks of universities, such as the OpenSociety University Network, can work together to promote open societies, support scholars at risk,
and build solidarity and resilience among smaller institutions in inhospitable political environments(Shtokvych /CEU).18 Networks of departments and centres, such as coalitions of human rights centres
in South Africa and Venezuela, undertake joint academic and advocacy activities, strategise collectively,and ‘show solidarity to moan collectively’ (Chamberlain / Wits, Romero / Venezuela).

Universities as Sites of Protection
This section covers the capacity of universities to protect political and democratic space (including
the protection of ideas); people and organisations; and diverse forms of knowledge. The role ofuniversities in protecting values such as academic freedom and social justice underpins these protectivefunctions, and is discussed above. This paper argues that these protective functions are interlinked andinterdependent, and that universities will have the strongest protection potential in human rights terms
if they are active in all the spheres outlined below.
First, universities play an important role protecting political and democratic space. Universities canembed a commitment to these goals in their values and mission, for example foregrounding academic
freedom and/or social justice, and implement the commitment through more concrete activities:
The Central European University is probably the only university in the world that has an OpenSociety mission written in its mission statement. (Shtokvych / CEU)
I do feel that our direct environment has become a little bit more open just because of ourpresence here as a university… We have been very closely involved in stimulating the municipalityof Middelburg (in The Netherlands) to become a Human Rights City, and new policies aredeveloped through human rights cities concerning refugees or persons with disabilities, this has
had a tangible impact on the environment, obviously modestly so. (Ooman / Roosevelt)
More specifically, universities can make particular and diverse contributions to holding open
political space:¢

Enhancing free speech, debate, and critical thinking. This takes various forms that can be placed
under the umbrella of academic freedom: protecting ‘the capacity to say what you think’ and spacefor debate (Castellejo / Los Andes); providing an environment where conversations can be had about

18 Other important networks include the Network of Arab Universities, Talloires Network, University for Peace in Costa Rica, and the Peace
Research Institute in Oslo.

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difficult issues (Baubeng-Baidoo / Pretoria); and ‘organising encounters’ between people and ideasthat would not ordinarily happen (Oomen / Roosevelt).
¢

Teaching and training the next generation ‘so that people graduate with a sense of what the world
looks like’ and are sensitised to their ‘political, economic and social context’ (Chamberlain / Wits):
Once they get here [students] are immersed in this atmosphere that puts expression, academic
freedom at the top of the agenda, and that really encourages critical thinking, that brings
together different cultures and disciplines into a conversation, often into a dialogue. I think that
the Central European University has contributed to nurturing the new generation of people whoare very acutely aware of the issues of inequality and justice and differences and conflict, who go
on to contribute in various ways. (Shtokvych / CEU)19¢

Adding intellectual credibility and legitimacy to activist arguments and causes through the multifaceted
support that can be provided through research (Brems / Ghent). Labelling something ‘research’ provides
a form of protection for ideas and view-points (Anon (b)), ‘valorises’ people and causes (Brems / Ghent);
enhances seriousness in public debate, providing evidence-based reasoning and linking the day to
day with broader issues (Romero / Venezuela); and develops research skills and empowers people tothemselves become researchers, thereby aiding activism and protection (Fildes / Dundee).

¢

Influencing policy and regulatory frameworks, by ‘taking the microphone’ and giving legitimacy tocertain advocacy and policy agendas (Chamberlain / Wits; Sigal / Buenos Aires).

Second, universities provide protection for people and organisations. As noted above, protection ismainly provided for specific groups – academics, refugees, activists – and sometimes commitment tothis kind of work is institutionalised, for example through accreditation as a University of Sanctuary.
Echoing Eriksson’s (2018) findings, the value-added by universities to such protection activities can be
broken down as follows:¢

Protection schemes: universities run fellowships, residencies and protection schemes for activists, aswell as student access programmes for refugees. Universities act as both stand-alone hosts (CAHR)
and partners in wider networks (ICORN, Shelter Cities).

¢

Protection through bureaucratic assistance: the large and powerful bureaucracies of universities canhelp address practical issues, for example securing visas (Dyvik / ICORN – we ‘use’ universities to getpeople in), and providing housing (Romero / Venezuela).

¢Protection through visibility/affiliation: universities can offer visibility for activists, agendas andmovements by creating a platform and amplifying their voices e.g. as public speakers at events or by
publishing reports. Affiliation with a university can also provide a layer of protection, by ‘appointing’activists and assigning a title to the appointment e.g. activists as educators (von Lieres / Scarborough,Toronto). Academics moving outside the university can also provide protection through visibility andaffiliation, for example when academics are added to NGO Boards and Advisory Committees (Anon(b); Vaddhanaphuti / Chiang Mai). Recognition and legitimacy that comes with visibility and affiliation
makes it harder to threaten activists and movements (Castellejo / Los Andes) – it increases the cost of
attacks (Sigal / Buenos Aires).

¢Protection by providing a protective space: universities can provide a multidimensional space thataids protection by being safer, more autonomous and independent, and ‘broader’, in the sensethat it allows for critical distance and reflection. Respite and reflection are core components of theprotection of people and organisations (Fildes / Dundee; Romero / Venezuela).

19 See the discussion above on collaborations (legal aid and teaching).

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Protection by building activist capacities: diverse activist capacities can be built within universities
through training in research, legal advocacy, languages, etc. (Anon (e); Fildes / Dundee), and also
through working collaboratively with staff and students in teaching programmes and research.

¢

Protection of organisations: Shtokvych highlighted the various hosting roles that a university canplay when discussing the Central European University’s activities during the recent crackdown on
universities in Hungary:
The Budapest University of Theatre and Film … revolted as a whole institution, a large number ofstudents and faculty did not accept the new Rector, and they set up the so-called Free University
for Theatre and Film Association, they have no hope of getting it accredited in Hungary as ahigher education institution so they registered as an association. But CEU [which had to movefrom Budapest to Vienna] … provided all the resources for free, access to a state of the art library…
classroom space, the students have free accommodation… We are providing free space to civilsociety organisations and host their events… [but] even providing free space and participating inanything that is educational is borderline for us to do… as the government is watching closely andmay take further arbitrary punitive action against us. (also see Inotai, 2020)¢

Protection through partnerships, collaboration and networks: as noted elsewhere in the Working
Paper collaborations between universities and between universities and other actors can support
activism, and provide protection, by connecting different protection providers, dividing tasks andresponding collectively to events or individual cases. For example, in Shelter Cities, municipalities,
CSOs and universities often host human rights defenders together (Oomen / Roosevelt; van Zwaan /Justice and Peace).

¢

Reframing protection: universities can support a move beyond a narrow reactive and physicalapproach to protection by helping to conceptualise and deliver something broader. Romero referred
to a ‘protection with prevention approach’, which includes psycho-social and well-being support, as
well as attention to resilience and sustainability. Another element of reframing relates to individual
activists whose identity can be shifted, for example from refugee to scholar or colleague, in a waythat can be important for self-esteem and protection (Dyvik / ICORN).

In relation to protecting local and diverse forms of knowledge, and in particular activist and indigenous
knowledges, universities play two contradictory roles. First, universities contribute to legitimisingcertain forms of knowledge, and creating knowledge hierarchies. An elitism informs the view that
‘we own the knowledge’ while external communities ‘have nothing to offer to us’ (Anon (e)). In
contrast, universities can play a second role, critically engaging with ‘what forms of knowledge andwhat voices are given space and valued and how to shift that… who are the voices that the university
promotes, when there are panel discussions, are there activists on them?’ (Chamberlain / Wits). While
many interviewees stressed the importance of diversifying knowledge, and that their university had
initiatives on decolonising the curricula and research, they also indicated that many of the initiatives
felt tokenistic (Anon (e)) and constantly came up against competing values (student employability,
attracting research funding) (Anon (c ); Shtokvych / CEU). That said, there were also examples ofgood practice. Vaddhanaphuti (Chiang Mai) talked about the importance of promoting ‘counterknowledge’, and trying ‘to open up the space for local people to speak up, to tell stories… so in thatcase it is part of the process of empowerment, it is a counter hegemony’. Support for local knowledge
in Vaddhanaphuti’s centre is integrated into teaching and research, and covers knowledge of theenvironment, and ethnic minorities and languages. In short: ‘One of our protections is to protect thislocal knowledge that has been overshadowed by scientific knowledge, by formal education’.

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Case Studies of Innovation and Good PracticeThree examples of innovation and good practice that are not addressed elsewhere in the Working
Paper are discussed below: the role of academic centres, human rights policies for universities, and
UNESCO Chairs and Networks.
Academic centres: Academic centres are different from departments. They are smaller, more nimble,
less rule-bound and can to some extent operate ‘off the radar’ of university oversight and performance
evaluation (Anon (c); Mills / Dundee). Many of those interviewed for this study who work in such
centres, talked of centres as ‘NGOs within the university’, and an active meeting point or channel
between the university and wider world. Activist centres often simultaneously seek invisibility andvisibility. Centres may have a relatively low profile within their host university, but much higher visibility
externally, with civil society, inter-governmental and other partners (Anon (c)). More political or activist
work may be knowingly delegated to centres, as when ‘silent agreements’ exist between Human Rights
Centres and Law Schools with each acknowledging the roles, potential and constraints of the other(Sigal / Buenos Aires), or when such centres serve as the ‘activist arm’ of a Law School, where actionthat requires some ‘boldness’ takes place (Anon (b)). Centre activist roles can be delegated or claimed.
The Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai, is externally funded
and as such can ‘try to find some freedom’ to do progressive work due to its ‘relation of autonomy’from the university: ‘We don’t have to ask for permission… to do our activities’. But with this freedom
comes vulnerability: ‘So as long as we keep a low profile I think they may not do anything against us,
by they I mean the university, but again, I do not know for sure. I have to be careful, the university will
not protect me’ (Vaddhanaphuti / Chiang Mai). Academic centres are likely to be the most receptive
entry-points and partners for activist and protection initiatives, and the places where there is mutual
recognition and shared priorities between civil society and universities (invisibility / visibility, boldness /vulnerability).
A human rights policy for universities: In 2017, Ghent University adopted a Human Rights Policy(Ghent University, 2017) that sought to set out its human rights responsibilities in relation tointernational activities, including both ‘positive’ responsibilities (‘realising a positive impact on theenjoyment of human rights’) and ‘negative’ responsibilities (‘avoiding complicity in human rights
violations’).20 The policy primarily focuses on negative responsibilities, namely that Ghent University
avoids directly or indirectly contributing to or facilitating violations of human rights; does not benefit
or profit from such violations; and denounces human rights violations encountered in its international
activities. These commitments are institutionalised via human rights impact assessments (of activities
and partners), and human rights clauses, which allow Ghent University to terminate cooperationagreements if partners are found to be involved in serious violations of human rights. A Commission on
Human Rights Policy was created to deliver on these positive and negative commitments. The policy
has been extended to apply internally, within the university, as well as to international collaborations,and adopted by the umbrella organisation of Flemish universities (VLIR). Among the challenges facing
the policy are ensuring awareness of it within the university and bridging the divide to implementation;gathering the relevant data; identifying when the university should cease a collaboration and for
how long; and the risk that institutionalising human rights commitments neutralises or restricts theirradicalism. It would be interesting to explore the potential of such policies to support positive actions
relating to activism and protection, and to frame and monitor these as part of a university’s humanrights responsibility (Brems / Ghent; Brems, et al., 2019).

20 As noted in footnote 14, the international legal responsibilities of universities are not clearly defined at present. As Ghent University is a public
university, it is arguably part of the state and therefore bound by international human rights law. That said, as it stands the Ghent University
policy is a voluntary document rather than one that is legally binding.

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UNESCO Chairs and Networks: While many academics, centres and Law Schools work with theUnited Nations human rights machinery, such as the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human
Rights Defenders, UNESCO Chairs and Networks (UNITWIN Networks) are also an important means ofsupporting activism and protection. UNESCO supports Chairs and Networks to enhance international
inter-university cooperation and networking, and institutional capacities through knowledge sharing
and collaborative work. Chairs and Networks focus on key priority areas related to UNESCO’s fields ofcompetence in education, culture and communication, and address pressing societal challenges. They
often serve as bridgebuilders between academia, civil society, local communities, and policy-makers,
and have proven useful in establishing partnerships and building capacities, shaping policy decisions
and normative developments, establishing new teaching initiatives, and generating innovation throughresearch. UNESCO does not fund Chairs and Networks, but provides networking and capacity building
support. Of particular relevance to protection work are the UNESCO Chair in Media Freedom, Journalism
Safety, and the Issue of Impunity at Sheffield (UK), which supports the implementation of the UN Plan of
Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity,21 and the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy
for the Arts in Development, which supports the implementation of the UNESCO Convention on theProtection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Gad, Hildesheim: Germany).22

Key Challenges to Activist and Protection Agendas
While this paper has focused mainly on the opportunities for universities to champion activism andprotection, there are also challenges to delivering on such an agenda:
1. Size, complexity and bureaucratic slowness: While the scale and scope of university bureaucracies
can support activist and protection work, they also create barriers. Different parts of universities
can pull in different directions, operate in ignorance of one another, and push their own particular
agendas. University bureaucracies are slow and risk averse (Chamberlain / Wits), creating adisincentive to do controversial or challenging work, while constraints on time and resources make‘living your values’ difficult (Anon (c)).
2. ‘Out-sourcing social justice work’: A number of interviewees suggested that activist agendas werechampioned by parts of any given university, rather than universities as a whole. They stated that
progressive initiatives exist ‘despite’ the university not ‘because of’ the university (Chamberlain /Wits); talked of pursuing ‘privatised concerns’, having failed to secure wider institutional support(Oomen / Roosevelt); and referenced the challenge of human rights being seen as ‘not necessarily
our core business’ (Brems / Ghent). At its worst, commitments to social justice can feel like window
dressing, where academics and projects are wheeled out for performances that universities stage forparticular audiences and on specific occasions, but which are not backed by serious commitment andresources (Mills / Dundee).
3. ‘Non-alignment’ with academic priorities: Activist and protection initiatives will be more sustainable
and withstand questions about whether they are appropriately located within a university setting
if they align with core academic priorities, especially research and teaching – such as when student
learning is predicated on teaching from and research with activists. Activism and protection initiatives
need to be presented and recognised as ‘activist, but also excellent’ (Anon (d)). However, there will
always be a degree of non-alignment. For example, protective fellowship schemes require human and

21 Draft UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity’ Available at: https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/un-plan-onsafety-journalists_en.pdf (accessed 02/08/2022).
22 UNESCO (2005) ‘Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions’ Available at: https://en.unesco.org/aboutus/legal-affairs/convention-protection-and-promotion-diversity-cultural-expressions (accessed 02/08/2022).

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financial resources (Gad / Hildesheim; Anon (c)), and supportive ‘scaffolding’ that does not align withtraditional academic roles or forms of expenditure (Anon (c); Fildes / Dundee).
4. Gaps between values and implementation: A further frequently encountered challenge is a gap
between aspirations and reality:
One of the big challenges that we have faced at Wits is a disconnect between the values
espoused by the university, and the way those values don’t manifest in its institutional culture,and so we have been grappling for many years with high levels of sexual harassment andracism, and that has been particularly difficult to navigate for black colleagues, women inparticular, working at the university. (Chamberlain / Wits)
5. Institutionalisation as dilution: Progressive and political initiatives can be watered down, reduced
to technical issues, through the process of institutionalisation, as often happens in processes ofmainstreaming. While on the one hand university support is needed to scale up and standardise
commitments, it can change the meaning of key terms and initiatives. For example, Vaddhanaphuti(Chiang Mai) talked about not using the term ‘community engagement’ because the university
employed the term to mean ‘university extension’, staff and students solving problems in thecommunity, not empowerment of or agency for the community (also see Boontinand, 2021).
6. Universities as an open space vs. safe space: The tension between the idea of the liberal universityof ideas and the university as a safe space shapes the possibilities for activism, what counts asactivism, and who and what requires protection.
So, the willingness to always critically question one’s assumptions, is also a key value…I do feelthat a trend towards what once was political correctness and is now wokeness and the cancel
culture, etc., does make it increasingly difficult to invite students to take the position of someone
who is deeply religious and has difficulties with homosexuality or a white male who does notwant foreigners in his street, etc. So, the combination of stimulating critical thinking, values
pluralism and propagating human rights – I think they are all values, but they are values that
often stand uneasily with each other. (Oomen / Roosevelt)
7. Universities as a safe space vs. a space of protest: Sometimes protection and activism can pull in
different directions, with universities as the target and initiator of protests making them an unsafe
and unprotected space for some. Providing safe spaces and protection is difficult where societal
divisions are reproduced within universities (Castillejo / Los Andes; Anon (e)), and universities have tonavigate complex and volatile contexts, such as a range of targeted restrictions, the criminalisation ofprotest and a complex humanitarian emergency in Venezuela (Romero / Venezuela).
8. Avoiding controversy: A further challenge is that universities step back from activism and protection
when they are perceived to be too political and too adversarial in relation to the government, or
clash with financial and other interests. For example, a Sri Lankan university set up a legal aid unit
in 2016 to help defend people who were in pre-trial detention, but it was closed by the faculty as it
was seen as too political (Anon (a)). This is a particular problem for public universities which rely on
the government for some level of financial support. Oomen (Roosevelt) also talked about universities
backing off from activist agendas the moment it becomes difficult; while Vaddhanaphuti (Chiang Mai)stated that the university was not supportive of students and faculty members who protest against
current government policy – ‘they don’t want the university to be the site of protest’.
9. ‘State capture’ of universities: A number of interviewees discussed forms of ‘state capture’ or‘institutional capture’, whereby university autonomy is eroded as the government assumes increasing
control over internal decision-making within universities. Anon (b) cited various examples at Makerere
University: students paying fees to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), with the university having
to request funds from this Authority; membership of the Appointments Board being non-transparent,

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with over 50% of personnel coming from outside the university; attempts to control student
leadership through the student Guild President and other leadership roles; and ethics approval
for research going through a state-run institution. Shtokvych (CEU) described a similar dynamicin Hungary, where ‘the entire education system is now being privatised… it is basically becoming
corporatised by the ruling political party’, which determines which programmes close, what kind of
students are taught, and the role of conservative Christian values in their curricula. In Sri Lanka, thegovernment has placed informants in the university at every level, and if academics speak out they
face intimidation and harassment (Anon (a)).
At a macro level, the two main global challenges facing universities seeking to pursue a public facing,social justice-oriented agenda are from state interference with academic freedom and autonomy
and market pressures, which prioritise individualism, competition, economic relevance and efficiency,
performance targets, and privatisation as dominant values.

Conclusion and Action Points
As noted in the introduction, these are challenging times for universities. In this context, it may seem
ambitious to call for an enhanced role for universities in activism and protection. There are four
reasons why this Working Paper makes this call. First, universities occupy a position of relative privilege
and autonomy in comparison to NGOs and social movements. They have the capacity, resources
and legitimacy to act in ways which others do not. Second, the attacks on democracy and politicalspace that are taking place all around the world are negatively affecting, and will inevitably continue
to affect, universities. There is an instrumental as well as a principled, or values-based, rationale foruniversities taking action. Third, the size of universities means that there are multiple ways in which
universities can intervene, and diverse actors who can take the lead. Universities themselves may
take a stand on certain issues, but academics, other staff, and students frequently act independentlyof formal university positions and policies to advocate for and collaborate with activists. Finally, thisinitial scoping research indicates the huge range of innovative activities which are already taking placein the fields of activism and protection. The research represents an initial attempt to document these
innovations, and an invitation to share knowledge and disseminate good practices.
The Working Paper concludes with a set of action points, drawn from the paper and wider research.
These action points are not a set of guidelines (setting out how universities should behave, or standards
they should uphold), nor do they follow a traditional pattern in human rights of targeting the state e.g.
focusing on the actions of the state, and developing a workable framework for monitoring repressive
state practices against higher education institutions by stakeholders (ICNL, 2019). Rather, they represent
a provisional attempt to set out a research, teaching and knowledge exchange agenda through which
universities and civil society can forge thicker collaborations and support activism, protection andultimately a vibrant democracy. The action points represent a point of departure for a new UNESCO
Chair, in the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Expansion of Political Space, based at the Centre
for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York, and held by one of the authors of this paper(Paul Gready), and for associated partners and networks. Such actions could include:¢

Better understanding the potential of working with and through often multiple university values andwhere they complement one another, where they generate friction, and how they can be mobilised
to support activism and protection activities.

¢

Assessing the language in which such activities are framed, by universities and partners in civilsociety, with a view to making communication legible for all parties and facilitating collaboration.

¢

Developing and supporting the four-fold categorisation of the roles that universities can play inactivism: instigator, incubator, collaborator, and protector.

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Analysing the potential of and challenges facing student activists and scholar activists.

¢

Understanding in a similar way the potential of and challenges facing or posed by academic
disciplines that are not represented in this Working Paper (the sciences, computer studies and IT),and other university staff who can support or resist activism and protection work (librarians andarchivists, administrative staff, etc.).

¢

Identifying the roles that different kinds of universities can play in supporting activism and protection(public / private,23 metropolitan / provincial / rural, religious / secular, etc.).

¢

Mapping the different ways in which universities are providing protection to local and global activists(affiliation, fellowships, organisational registration, collaboration through teaching and research,training, acting as financial hubs or agents, etc.), and assessing the added value they bring to suchprotection work.

¢

Researching the importance of, and links between, the various forms of protection discussed in thispaper – values, people, knowledge – and the contention that they can be mutually reinforcing andsupport a move from a reactive ‘protection from’ to the more proactive and enabling ‘protection to’.

¢Supporting universities seeking to diversify the forms of knowledge they showcase in teaching andresearch, whether under the umbrella of decolonisation or in other ways, with a particular focus on
activist knowledge.

¢

Championing, documenting and sharing innovation and good practice in university support for
activism and protection, for example further exploring the potential of academic centres, humanrights policies, and UNESCO Chairs and Networks.

¢

Better understanding the challenges and constraints for universities, their staff and students asinitiators of, and partners in, activist and protection agendas.

23 Appe and Barragàn (2017: 482, 484) note that in Ecuador private universities are more likely to collaborate and have formal agreements with thedevelopment NGOs they interviewed.

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Appendix 1: Interviews
Anonymous academic (a). (2022), Interview with P. Cooper and E. Jackson on Zoom, 18th January, 2022.
Anonymous academic (b). (2021), Interview with P. Gready and P. Cooper on Zoom, 4th August 2021.
Anonymous academic (c). (2021), Interview with P. Gready and P. Cooper on Zoom, 5th August, 2021.
Anonymous academic (d). (2021), Interview with P. Gready and P. Cooper on Zoom, 2nd August, 2021.
Anonymous academic (e). (2021), Interview with E. Jackson and P. Cooper on Zoom, 16th August, 2021.
Binz, L. (2022), Scholars at Risk. Interview with P. Cooper and E. Jackson on Zoom, 27th January, 2022.
Brems, E. (2021), Ghent University, Interview with P. Gready and E. Jackson on Zoom, 29th July 2021.
Buabeng-Baidoo, J. (2021), University of Pretoria, Interview with P. Gready and P. Cooper on Zoom, 22nd
November, 2021.
Castellejo, A. (2021), University of Los Andes. Interview with P. Cooper and P. Gready on Zoom, 15th
September, 2021.
Chamberlain, L. (2021), University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg. Interview with P. Gready and E. Jackson
on Zoom, 28th July, 2021.
Dyvik, E. (2021), ICORN. Interview with P. Gready and E. Jackson on Zoom, 8th November, 2021.
Gad, D. (2021), University of Hildesheim. Interview with Paul Gready and Pippa Cooper on Zoom, 17th
September, 2021.
Mills, K. and Fildes, H. (2021), Dundee University. Interview with P. Gready and E. Jackson on Zoom, 5thAugust 2021.
Oomen, B. (2021), Utrecht University, University College Roosevelt. Interview with P. Gready and E. Jackson
on Zoom, 28th July, 2021.
Romero, M. (2021), Centro para los Defensores y la Justicia. Interview with E. Jackson and P. Cooper on Zoom,
9th November, 2021.
Shtokvych, O. (2021), Central European University. Interview with E. Jackson and P. Cooper on Zoom, 18th
October, 2021.
Sigal, M. (2021), University of Buenos Aires. Interviewed by Paul Gready and P. Cooper on Zoom, 5th October, 2021.
Trujillo Ariza, E. (2021), Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. Interview with E. Jackson and P. Cooper on Zoom,
8th November, 2021.
Vaddhanaphuti, C. (2021), Chiang Mai University. Interview with P. Greedy and P. Cooper on Zoom, 3rdAugust, 2021.
Van der Zwaan, S. (2021), Shelter City, Interview with P. Cooper and P. Gready on Zoom, 25th October, 2021.
Von Lieres, B. (2021), University of Toronto, Scarborough. Interview with Paul Gready on Zoom, 12th July, 2021.
Wordsworth, S. (2021), CARA. Interview with Paul Gready and Pippa Cooper on Zoom, 5th November, 2021.

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