Policing the University: A Global Trend

The essay examines the increasing policing of universities and colleges and specifically the diminishing of faculty and students’ right to peacefully assemble and challenge oppressive governance. I argue that we must understand the escalating presence of riot police on university grounds as part of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Eve Darian-Smith
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PUCPRESS 2025-06-01
Series:Revista de Direito Econômico e Socioambiental
Subjects:
Online Access:https://periodicos.pucpr.br/direitoeconomico/article/view/32337
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The essay examines the increasing policing of universities and colleges and specifically the diminishing of faculty and students’ right to peacefully assemble and challenge oppressive governance. I argue that we must understand the escalating presence of riot police on university grounds as part of a wider trend to prevent all forms of public protest. Thinking about policing students and scholars as constituting part of a global anti-protest trend is essential for several reasons. First, it avoids getting bogged down in detailed legal and constitutional debates about what constitutes academic freedom and what activities justify police intervention that may vary within and across national contexts. This helps overcome the state-centered approach that continues to dominate analyses of higher education and opens up new comparative and transnational perspectives and questions. Secondly, and more importantly, without considering the global context in which localized attacks on universities occur we will not fully comprehend why policing is escalating, nor develop strategies to resist far-right regimes that suppress scholars and wider societies’ ability to challenge rising authoritarianism.
ISSN:2179-345X
2179-8214