The Weight of Fear: The Silent Erosion of Academic Freedom
Samyuktha Kannan | 24 March 2025 | Z Network
There was a time when the university was imagined as a space of intellectual risk, where thought could move freely, unrestricted by the anxieties of power or professional survival. That time is long gone. Today, for students and faculty alike, the act of writing – of producing knowledge, of articulating critique—is suffused with fear. Not the productive fear that accompanies intellectual rigor, but the dull ache and exhausting fear of consequence. What will this essay, this paper, this published article mean for my future? Will it cost me a job? A fellowship? A visa? Will it mark me, quietly and irrevocably, as a threat? I remember drafting an abstract for a Marxist conference in Berlin, excited by the possibility of engaging with ideas beyond the sanitized limits of our classrooms. It was a small act – writing a 300-word abstract and submitting – but one that felt, for once, intellectually honest. A faculty member, someone I trusted, pulled me aside. Their warning was not unkind. It was pragmatic, even protective: “You have postgrad applications coming up in a few months. Why invite the wrong kind of attention?” I nodded, understanding what was left unsaid. A line on my CV, a question in an admissions interview, an invisible mark against my name – were risks worth taking? The abstract was never sent. But I realised my mistake a day too late…