More academic freedom in Macau than Germany, philosopher says
Alex Lo | 11 April 2024 | South China Morning Post
Among European countries, post-war Germany has enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for academic and artistic freedom. So it must have caused a profound sense of discomfort when even The New York Times ran a story this week headlined, “Berlin Was a Beacon of Artistic Freedom. Gaza Changed Everything … The home of boundary-pushing artists from around the world has been upended by debates about what can and can’t be said about Israel and the war.”
Well, it’s not just Berlin, but Germany itself. The latest furore concerns one of New York’s academic luminaries, Nancy Fraser, a Jewish-American feminist who happens to be one of the most influential philosophers writing today.
Cologne University has just cancelled her Albertus Magnus visiting professorship, one of the most prestigious of its kind in Europe. Her offence? Back in November, she joined more than 400 professional philosophers from around the world to sign the “Philosophy for Palestine” proclamation, calling for an end to the massacres in Gaza by the Israeli military.