Wirth Institute hosts Dr. Michael Ignatieff in lecture on academic freedom

On Friday, April 30 the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta will host an online lecture delivered by Dr. Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector of the Central European University. “Illiberal Democracy and Threats to Academic Freedom in Europe” will be followed by a panel discussion featuring members of the Wirth Institute’s Academic Advisory Board, including Professor Lori Thorlakson (Department of Political Science) and Professor Nykkie Lugosi-Schimpf (Faculty of Native Studies) as well as the Wirth Institute’s Hungarian Doctoral Research Fellow, Gergely Rajnai (Corvinus University, Budapest).

Dr. Michael Ignatieff is currently the fifth president of the CEU, having served in that capacity since 2016. Perhaps best known to Canadians from his time in federal politics, he served as an MP and Leader of the Liberal Party as well as Leader of the Opposition from 2008-2011. Trained as a historian at the University of Toronto and Harvard University, Dr. Ignatieff is the author of numerous books on both historical and contemporary topics and, following his political career and before becoming President of the CEU, he taught law, politics, and public policy at Massey College in Toronto as well as at the Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Ignatieff holds numerous honourary degrees and is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.

Since becoming President and Rector of the CEU in 2016, Ignatieff has been embroiled in conflicts arising from the politics and policies of the Hungarian populist leader Viktor Orbán, the two-time Prime Minister of Hungary who has been in office since 2010. These conflicts have resulted in the ongoing move of the Central European University from its long-time home in Budapest to a new location in Vienna. In his UAlberta lecture, Dr. Ignatieff will reflect on this experience and what it reveals about the nature of what have become known as “illiberal democracies” (such as that of Orban’s Hungary) and, in particular, their effect on the field of higher education.

The Central European University was founded in 1991 in the period immediately following the end of the various socialist regimes in Central Europe. In this dynamic time of social and political transformation, the university owed its origins partly to the Hungarian-American philanthropist Dr. George Soros, a benefactor of the university who has been the subject of substantial criticism from the Hungarian authorities. Originally the CEU’s main location was in Prague, with some operations in Warsaw and Budapest, but over time the institution moved most of its activities to Budapest. It was here that it developed into a well-respected graduate-student serving institution with a focus on the social sciences and humanities, with recent efforts to increase undergraduate enrolment.

Known for the international diversity of its student body, with instruction in English, it attracts students from around the world. A number of CEU alumni have gone on to study at the University of Alberta with at least four doctoral students currently studying in the Department of History and Classics having earned graduate degrees from the CEU.  At least one UAlberta History alumna now studies at the CEU, revealing ties between the two universities which hope to deepen in the years to come.

In 2018, in the face of public outcry, but with little choice from the Orban government, the CEU announced its decision to move most of its activities to Vienna — an event that marked the first time in decades that a university had been forcibly expelled from Europe. Although a non-teaching, research presence will be kept in Budapest, the move to Austria is ongoing. Plans now call for a new campus to be constructed by 2025 in Vienna in the old Steinhof Hospital grounds which were designed in the early twentieth century by the well-known Austro-Hungarian architect Otto Wagner. Though the CEU may continue to flourish in its new location, Ignatieff believes the experience of the institution signals wide-ranging implications for fellow universities around the globe.

Please join the Wirth Institute in welcoming Dr. Michael Ignatieff and take part in the discussion of this important topic.  For more information and to register, go to this page.