Questions for discussion

1. Academia has always strived to a culture of exchange. Not as a social structure, but as an epistemological tool allowing us to deepen our knowledge, discover our blind spots and to realise that truth (if ever it exists) is not one-dimensional. Social justice was never part of this epistemology and denying its importance led to hidden power structures (Foucault, Bourdieu). Does social justice have its place in academia?

2. Cancel culture can easily lead to identity politics. Moreover, to a powerplay that has very little to do with democratic structures. University boards tend to listen rather quickly to protesting students. How about the relationship between democracy, social justice and cancel culture? Matters of gender, religion, sexuality, can they still be discussed in an ’academic’ way?

3. Cancel culture is one of the phenomena of the social fractures our society is suffering from. Indeed, academia is part of our society and the idea of an ivory tower has since long been abandoned. Society and its problems entered the university. Nevertheless, research and reflection can only survive and thrive thanks to a certain distance to ‘daily life’. Up to what extent can academia participate in the societal debates?