“Academic Freedom, Democracy, and the NSERC National Security Guidelines”, featuring Victor V. Ramraj, and sponsored by the centre for Global Studies and the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria.

Register here: https://uvic.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uc-GoqjgjGtQkSpaQZmKg2eE5fKNqXggX

The workshop offers some critical reflections and constructive suggestions on theNSERC National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships. After a brief review and contextual overview of the Guidelines, it considers the implications for the role of a university and its place in a democracy and the unintended consequences of the guidelines and the Federal Budget 2022 for, among others: academic freedom; international collaboration; and aspirations for equity, diversity, and inclusion. Finally, it will also offer some reflections on what might be done to mitigate the unintended consequences of national security imperatives for the university.

Victor V. Ramraj is Professor of Law and Chair in Asia-Pacific Legal Relations at the University of Victoria. Since 2017, he has served as Director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives. Before returning to Canada in 2014, he spent 16 years at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law—in the course of which he was twice seconded to the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London (UK), once as its co-director. He also spent a sabbatical studying counter-terrorism law and policy at Queen’s University Belfast. Victor’s recent research interests span comparative public law, transnational law, and the state-company relationship. He has dozens of articles in leading journals in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Among his current research projects is an empirical study of law, politics, and the academy in Asia, focusing on academic freedom issues.