Re-Thinking the Intellectual-State Relationship: Academic Freedom in China

The Manchester China Institute (MCI)promotes excellence in China studies at the University of Manchester. MCI hosts in-person talks, workshops, and roundtables, and well as webinars with a global reach. Our public events are free and open to all. The University of Manchester is committed to academic independence and thefreedom of speech. The views speakers present are entirely their own, and do not represent those of the University of Manchester or the Manchester China Institute and its directors.

Manchester China Institute

Join the MCI for a timely discussion on the past, present, and future of academic freedom in China, featuring Benjamin Mulvey and Boya Li.

Oddfellows Hall (Boardroom)

In this seminar, we aim to provide a reappraisal of the way that academic freedom in the Chinese context is understood, challenging claims made in existing academic literature on this topic on three grounds. First, we contend that many of the formulations in current literature on academic freedom in China are based on a state-centric reading of Confucianism. We highlight that Confucian political thought is multifaceted: existing literature seeking to link current Chinese understandings of academic freedom to Confucianism presents ‘State Confucianism’, one facet of Confucian thought which is often evoked as a means of justifying contemporary authoritarian rule, as the entire Confucian tradition. Relatedly, we demonstrate how existing literature creates a false dichotomy between two monolithic, essentialised notions of academic freedom: the ‘Western’ liberal individualist and ‘Sinic’ Confucian collectivist. Second, we highlight that existing accounts of academic freedom in China effectively draw on an extend the ‘incompatibility thesis’, and in doing so, engage in historical determinism and cultural essentialism, reading modern authoritarianism back into Chinese tradition. Third, we argue that this work also seems to ‘soft-pedal’ current restrictions on academic freedom in China. In doing so we, we highlight markers of a rapid deterioration of academic freedom over the past decade. These include the increasingly pervasive surveillance and the narrowing of space for dissent, as well as the firing and imprisonment of scholars, as examples. We also seek to discuss the responsibilities in this regard of scholars working on issues related to Chinese higher education.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERSBenjamin Mulvey is a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow's School of Education, and programme leader of the MSc. in Education, Public Policy, and Equity. His research primarily explores the sociology of international higher education, with a focus on China. He has published on international student mobility between Africa and China and also on the ethics of higher education internationalisation. Benjamin’s research has appeared in journals such as Higher Education, Sociology, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, and British Journal of Sociology of Education. He is a member of the editorial board of the journals Global Networks and International Studies in Sociology of Education.Boya Li is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University. Her research interests include identity and belonging, the Chinese diaspora, internal educational mobility in China, and Chinese intellectual history. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked in the higher education sector in mainland China and Hong Kong. She has also worked as a research assistant on several research projects at the Education University of Hong Kong, the University of Manchester and Western Sydney University. Her PhD project focuses on first-generation Chinese migrants in Sydney.

A﻿BOUT THE ORGANISERS<a href="https://www.mci.manchester.ac.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Manchester China Institute (MCI)</a> promotes multidisciplinary research, teaching and programming with impact beyond academia, seeking to remedy class, racial, gender, and other inequalities, and to improve mutual understanding in UK-China relations. The MCI is based at the University of Manchester.

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Re-Thinking the Intellectual-State Relationship: Academic Freedom in China

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