The dissemination of knowledge is key to academic life. The desire to connect scientific knowledge across disciplines and borders has altered the way the field of teaching is conceptualized and practiced: Although transnational networks, multi-language courses and digital tools have considerably changed the face of teaching in academia, restrictions to academic freedom or differential access to lectureships still pose challenges to how teaching is lived today.

The conference Teaching in Exile: Transnational Experiences in the Digital Age wishes to highlight the complex assemblage of opportunities and challenges in the field of knowledge transfer by focusing on different teaching experiences of scholars internationally. The conference also explores how digital media has opened new avenues for transnational teaching models. Teaching in Exile encourages a dialogue on three broad conference themes.

TAKING ACTION IN TEACHING focuses on initiatives dedicated to emancipatory research and teaching. Academics flee conflict or war, are banned from institutions for their opinions, or restricted in their research – circumstances that call for creative solutions to education and scientific work. Taking Action invites scholars to critically discuss current issues und initiatives related to more democratic education and research with special reference to transformations in teaching platforms.

SHOWING OFF SCIENCE  gives the community of Academics in Solidarity and its partner organizations involved in teaching the chance to present their work to a wider network. It focuses on assembling a range of individual and institutional approaches to teaching. Showing Off will be structured as a digital fair where individual teaching formats are shared and initiatives present how they advocate and practically intervene in contributing to a better dissemination of knowledge.

INFRASTRUCTURES OF INCLUSION  aims at advancing democratic involvement in teaching and higher education in general. Exiled scholars face many obstacles on their path to teaching in quality and scale: they range from local administrative hurdles, over long-standing university cultures up to societal differences in openness to intellectual content. Infrastructures strives to assess structural inequalities and generate joint ideas for better involvement in teaching by opening a discussion between actors who shape how teaching is structurally promoted for everyone.

We encourage scholars from various disciplinary areas internationally to partake in the conference to enrich the solution-finding process and discussions on teaching. We especially welcome contributions by refugees and at-risk scholars as well as students (from the graduate level).

Find out more about the conference and how to apply here.