Virtual Lecture on Academic Freedom in the MENA Region

Register here: https://frama.link/DfxgMXKT

Please join us for an online discussion on Academic Freedom in Libya and the wider MENA region with Dr. Mabruk Derbash on Monday, June 29th at 12:00pm EST/6:00pm CET.

Since the Arab Spring began in early 2010s, countless academics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) have been fired from their faculty positions in direct response to ideas expressed in their writing or teaching. In the most extreme cases, their lives have been threatened, and they have been forced to flee. This lecture will provide an introduction to the concept of “academic freedom,” and the situation for academics and intellectuals in the MENA region, especially Libya.

Mabruk Derbesh earned his PhD in Applied Management and Decision Science with an emphasis on Knowledge Management from Walden University. His research focuses on academic freedom in the Arab world. He argues that while academic freedom is still a novel concept in the Arab world, a global threat to academia and free thought is evident even within the liberal apparatus in the West.In Libya, Mabruk was a faculty member at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, University of Tripoli, where he taught courses on management. He has written extensively in major Libyan magazines and newspapers, and is known for his distinguished Arabic writing style and harsh criticism of the static political discourse and religious extremism. He is the founder of the Libyan Institution of Academic and Intellectual Freedom. Mabruk is currently a Fellow at Columbia Global Centers | Amman.