Host a Scholar

“I heard people talk about places like Harvard, Brown, and universities in Europe,” said Tararith Kho of his childhood. “But I come from a poor place close to the Thai border. I never dreamed I would come here.” He is now a fellow in Harvard’s Scholars at Risk program.

Roberto Saviano is an Italian journalist, author of the non-fiction novel Gomorrah (published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which to date has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, has been translated into 54 languages and in 2008 was made into an award-winning film. Saviano's book is an engrossing look into the inner workings of the Neapolitan mafia, La Camorra, which has resonated around the world because of the far-reaching arms of organized crime. Shortly after sales of Gomorrah reached...

Last Monday was ‘World Day against the Death Penalty’ and whilst many Trinity students were enjoying the eccentric spectacle of Bollywood filmmaking in Front Square, some human rights activists were attending an altogether quite different event.

Professors and students are being singled out for assassination, according to a leading scholar in the Syrian opposition movement who last week addressed the Human Rights Council in Geneva. "We have fears for scholars on the ground. More than 10 professors have been killed, mostly at Homs, in the past two weeks," said Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Dubai Initiative in the Kennedy School, Harvard. "The situation is escalating and we expect more killings."

A prominent Iranian lawyer who was arrested earlier this month is reported to be facing a new charge of accepting an "unlawful" award for his human rights work.

Critics concerned by scientific bodies' move away from traditional campaigning on behalf of oppressed researchers.

L’école accueille un jeune chercheur africain qui a mis en évidence les liens entre le clergé et les milices armées dans son pays d’origine

The suspected detention without cause of a leading international scholar will, if true, damage the United Arab Emirates' reputation and position as a centre of knowledge, an international human rights network has warned.

Clark University recently became a member of the Scholars at Risk network, an international network of institutions and individuals working to promote academic freedom and to defend the human rights of scholars worldwide. A launch event, titled "Academic Freedom in the Middle East and Beyond: Supporting Scholars at Risk," will feature a panel discussion, from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Apr. 11, in the Rose Library of the Cohen-Lasry House, 11 Hawthorne Street.

Escaping danger, onetime diplomat now in Scholars at Risk program

A iraniana Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, 42, professora universitária no Estado de Massachusetts, nos EUA, soube por sua mãe, na semana passada, que apesar de viver fora de seu país desde 2005, os jornais locais noticiaram um novo processo do governo aberto contra ela.

The Stanford University political scientist lamented the circumstances that have kept him far from his family and friends in Iran. "The situation at the (Iranian) universities gets worse and worse every day," said the man, who requested anonymity because of the risk to his family. "They believe that one professor, like a disease, can infect many students." Dozens of academics like him seek help every year from the nonprofit organization Scholars at Risk, which helps threatened professors and others...

Exiled female writers find they have little in common with immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking material gains. Instead, they are often looking for the chance to find continuity and tell stories about their ruptured lives.

It is June 29, 2004, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Magazine writer Maksim Maksimov, investigating police corruption, gets a tip. He follows an informant to an apartment on Furshtatskaya Street.

Sri Lanka's conflict is over, and yet it isn't – not there, and not here.

TORONTO, Oct. 19 /CNW/ - Centennial College is advancing its equity and social justice agenda with the launch of the college's Institute for Global Citizenship and Equity on Tuesday, October 20.

IRANIAN NOBEL peace laureate Shirin Ebadi yesterday called on the international community to challenge Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on human rights violations committed during the unrest that followed his disputed re-election when he participates in this week’s opening session of the UN General Assembly.

New York - Robert Quinn has a plane to catch. He also has to write a speech for a conference in the Netherlands. But first he has to help a student from Azerbaijan get to a safe place. Because that's what Mr. Quinn does: He saves scholars from danger.

In Guatemala, a leading anthropologist received death threats while excavating mass graves to look for evidence of war crimes. An academic was imprisoned by the Turkish government on 41 charges, for researching torture cases. A researcher in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was held for eight months without trial and tortured for his research on ethnic conflict. In Chad, government agents threw a grenade at a scholar who had researched and written about a past oppressive regime.

The World Conference on Higher Education will be held in July at Unesco headquarters in Paris on the theme of The New Dynamics of Higher Education. It follows the 1998 World Conference, which was important for recognising higher education as a key factor in the progression of nations and their people, for sustainable development and for human rights as well as for democracy, peace and justice.

A symposium and workshop on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in West African Universities was held at the University of Ghana on April 15-16, 2009. The event was co-hosted by Scholars at Risk, the University of Ghana, the Council for the Development of Social Science Rearch in Africa (CODESRIA), the West African Research Centre (WARC) and the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR), with generous support from the Open Society Institute (OSI).

Robert Quinn, founding director of the Scholars at Risk Network, will speak on "Protecting Freedom of Ideas Around the Globe" at 7 p.m. today at the University of the Ozarks' Walton Fine Arts Center in Clarksville.

WASHINGTON — Ask a group of scientists — heck, ask any group of people — if they’re concerned about human rights, and you’ll get few if any dissenters. After all, it’s a hard thing not to care about. But it might be a little less clear why scientists, or any professionals, need a formal group to actively involve themselves in human rights issues. Isn’t that a role best left to humanitarian groups?

The Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) and the Scholars at Risk (SAR) Network held a conference and workshop on academic freedom in Ethiopia last month. The event was organised in partnership with the Forum for Social Studies, the Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa and the British Council. Faculty members and researchers from 13 countries participated, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine,...

On Tuesday, University Director Gunn-Elin Aa. Bjørneboe received unanimous support from the university board for the proposal that the University of Oslo (UiO) should welcome a new academic refugee every other year. In addition to this, the university director requests a consideration of whether scholars who are staying in Norway as refugees should be given access to academic environments at UiO.

Faculty members and students in Iraq and Iran continue to face a severely repressive climate, two exiled scholars said Saturday during a panel discussion held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association. The scholars called on faculty associations around the world to do more to promote academic freedom in the Middle East.

INTRODUCTION The Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) forwards to its participants news about the domain where history and human rights intersect, as reported by the American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS, Washington], Amnesty International [AI, London], Article 19 [A19, London], Human Rights Watch [HRW, Washington/New York], Index on Censorship [IOC, London], the Network of Education and Academic Rights [NEAR, London], International PEN Writers in Prison Committee [PEN, London],...

Academic freedom worldwide must be strengthened through a better defence of core university values and greater solidarity within higher education communities. This was the conclusion from a conference organised by the New York-based Scholars at Risk organisation at the European Humanities University in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) and the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) held the first in a series of workshops on academic freedom in Amman, Jordan on March 31st, 2008. The workshop took place on the second day of a three day event organized in partnership with the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) and hosted by the United Nations University (UNU) in Amman under the patronage of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Jordan.

Scholars at Risk provides refuge for academics fleeing their countries for the crime of having spoken their minds.

The Watson Institute for International Studies is welcoming 17 new visitors-in-residence to Brown this semester who will participate in a variety of programs.

It’s all too easy to forget that the rights Americans enjoy – including rights to free speech and academic freedom – don’t always exist in other nations.

Shahriar Mandanipour thought the yearlong International Writers Project at Brown University would give him a well-needed break. The Iranian fiction writer is renown ed in his country for his short stories and novels. But the specter of censorship in Iran weighed upon him. "I lost the passion for writing," he says.

Academe features an article by Robert Quinn, the director of Scholars at Risk, about the efforts of the SAR Network to assist threatened academics.

The California Aggie features an article that details the upcoming SAR Network Symposium at the University of San Francisco.

The Houston Chronicle features an article on the challenges facing Iraqi academics. Robert Quinn, director of Scholars at Risk is quoted.

Science features an article about the difficulties facing Iraqi scientists. The article describes the letter writing campaign launched by SAR urging authorities to improve security conditions for higher education communities in Iraq.

The Times Higher Education Supplement (UK) features a letter to the editor about the CARA/SAR UK Universities Network by CARA director John Akker.

The Guardian (UK) features an article about the newly launched CARA-SAR UK Network working to assist threatened and refugee scholars in the UK. NYU President John Sexton's lecture at the event is highlighted.

The Ohio Plain Dealer features an article about a SAR/SRF scholar from Rwanda hosted by Kent State University.

NYU Today features article announcing $1 million gift to the NYU School of Law to establish the Albert Podell Global Scholar at Risk Fund.

The Chronicle of Higher Education features an article about the creation of UK Network of universities launched under the auspices of SAR and the Council for Assisting Refugee Academimcs (CARA).

The Times for Higher Education Supplement features an article on the SAR-CARA effort to establish network of UK universities to assist threatened and refugee scholars.

The International Higher Education features an article written by SAR staff Rob Quinn and Carla Stuart about the importance of building cross-cultural dialogue to protect and promote academic freedom.

Authorities in Singapore have jailed a former University fellow for the third time for violating a law that bans unlicensed public speech.

Announcement of the Human Rights Program's one-day conference on Civil Society and the Practice of Human Rights (Saturday, April 13, 2002)

An article about the establishment of the Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund in partnership with the Scholars at Risk Network.

An article about the Scholars at Risk Network at the University of Chicago -- about the history of academic freedom, the beginnings of the Network at Chicago, and the recent announcement of the Institute of International Education (IIE) partnership to create the Scholar Rescue Fund.

The Chronicle of Higher Education features an article about the formation of the Scholars at Risk Network. Robert Quinn, the Network' s director, speaks about the importance of providing sanctuary for threatened scholars.