Thinking is public. Political alignment is hidden

Call for solidarity: The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade (IFDT) is in danger

The renowned Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory Belgrade (IFDT) can look back on a liberal tradition. It was founded by dissidents involved in the Yugoslav 1968 movement, in the 1990s it opposed the policies of Milošević. The reform politician Zoran Đinđić, who was murdered in 2003, a studied philosopher and the first Serbian head of government in the post-Miloševic era, worked at this institute for several years.

The IFDT is now, it seems, to be put on a political leash. The Serbian government has appointed a new supervisory board, into which several highly controversial political figures have been elected: For example, Zoran Avramović is to be president of the board. In the 1990s, he held leading positions in the radical right-wing party of Vojislav Šešelj (who was found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Hague Tribunal). Avramović had already indicated what he thinks of the institute, when he obtained the suspension of the financing of the IFDT Regional Centre in Novi Sad. The current provisional director uses repressive measures that indicate what the future of the institute should look like (threats to suspend the salary, attempts to reduce the freedom of the institute's Scientific Council, young scientists who are put under pressure by him, etc.)

Democracy, and more specifically: the scientific and educational landscape in Serbia, is in an increasingly threatened situation. There are only a few free media. The attempt now to muzzle and perhaps eliminate an autonomous academic institution like the IFDT further weakens the Serbian democratic public. But publicity is not to the liking of either the politically installed supervisory board or the Serbian government. Freedom of opinion and freedom of science can be defended by European solidarity of colleagues and intellectuals. In this specific case, this happened once before in 1980 when Jürgen Habermas, Ernst Bloch, Iring Fetscher, Oskar Negt, and Albrecht Wellmer successfully called for support for the institute by addressing the then Yugoslav and Serbian authorities directly. Who would have thought that in 2020 philosophy in Serbia would again have to be protected from the state?

Given this development, we, the supporters of this appeal, demand the immediate replacement of the IFDT supervisory board with scientific experts, namely representatives of an open and democratic scientific culture; the wishes of the institute members should be respected in the election of the new institute director. Also, the Serbian government should not be able to force a new director of the IFDT on the institute by decree. The institute must regain its political and institutional independence. If the Serbian government seriously supports democratization and wants to position itself as a reliable candidate for EU membership, it will withdraw from this attempt at political alignment.

If you want to support this Call for Solidarity, please contact Ljubisa Bojic [[email protected]] (former member of the Triangle Lab, doctor of political science from Sciences Po Lyon).

Supporters:

Prof. Dr. em. Jürgen Habermas (University of Frankfurt), Prof. Dr. Axel Honneth (Columbia University), Prof. Dr. Judith Butler (University of California, Berkeley), Prof. Dr. Étienne Balibar (Kingston University/Columbia University), Prof. Dr. em. Noam Chomsky (Massachusetts Institute of Technology/University of Arizona), Prof. Dr. em. Barbara Cassin (Académie française/CNRS), Prof. Dr. Martha C. Nussbaum (The University of Chicago), Prof. Dr. Brian Leiter (University of Chicago), Prof. Jonathan Wolff (University of Oxford), Prof. Dr. Seyla Benhabib (Yale University), Prof. Dr. Nancy Frazer (New School for Social Research), Prof. Dr. Petra Gehring (TU Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Armin Grunwald (Karlsruhe Institut for Technology), Prof. Dr. em. Christoph Hubig (TU Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Tim Crane (CEU, Budapest/Vienna), Prof. Dr. Jeffrey C. Alexander (Yale University), Prof. Dr. Achille Mbembe (University of Witwatersrand), Prof. Dr. Raymond Geuss (University of Cambridge), Prof. Dr. em. Wolfgang Streeck (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies), Prof. Dr. Fredric Jameson (Duke University), Prof. Dr. Antonio Negri (University of Padua), Prof. Dr. Katalin Farkas (CEU, Budapest/Vienna), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merkel (WZB Berlin Social Science Center), Prof. Dr. Maurizio Ferraris (University of Turin), Prof. Dr. Werner Gephart (Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bonn), Prof. Dr. Roberto Esposito (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), Prof. Dr. Sybille Krämer (Free University of Berlin), Prof. Dr. Michael Resch (University of Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt University of Berlin), Prof. Dr. Dan Zahavi (University of Copenhagen), Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst (University of Frankfurt), Prof. Dr. Frédéric Worms (Ecole normale supérieure Paris), Prof. Dr. Patrick Baert (University of Cambridge), Prof. Dr. Michael Burawoy (University of California, Berkeley), Prof. Dr. Craig Calhoun (Arizona State University), Prof. Dr. Éric Fassin (University of Paris 8 St-Denis), Prof. Dr. Rogers Brubaker (University of California), Prof. Dr. Hans Bernhard Schmid (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Maria Kovács (CEU Budapest/Vienna), Prof. Dr. Dieter Birnbacher (University of Düsseldorf), Prof. Dr. Monique Canto-Sperber (École normale supérieure Paris), Prof. Dr. Monika Betzler (University of Munich), Prof. Dr. Simon Susen (University of London), Prof. Dr. Giuseppina Strummiello (University of Bari), Prof. Dr. Judith Revel (Université Paris Nanterre), Prof. Dr. Emmanuel Alloa (University of Fribourg), Prof. Dr. Adriana Cavarero (University of Verona), Prof. Dr. Marc Crépon (École normale supérieure Paris ), Prof. Dr. Guillaume le Blanc (Université de Paris-Diderot), Prof. Dr. Fabienne Brugère (Université Paris 8/Université Paris Lumières), Prof. Dr. Lisa Maria Herzog (University of Groningen), Prof. Dr. Katja Crone (University of Dortmund), Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst (University of Flensburg), Prof. Dr. Michèle Lamont (Harvard University), Prof. Dr. Véronique Nahoum-Grappe (EHESS, Paris), Prof. Dr. Pierre-Michel Menger (Collège de France, Paris), Prof. Dr. Michael Löwy (Directeur de recherches émérite au CNRS, Paris), Prof. Dr. Michel Lallement (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, Paris), Prof. Dr. Patrick Boucheron (Collège de France, Paris), Prof. Dr. François Héran (Collège de France, Paris), Prof. Dr. Frédéric Lebaron (Ecole normale supérieure, Paris-Saclay), Prof. Dr. Jean-Louis Fabiani (Central European University, Budapest), Prof. Dr. Christophe Charle (Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, IHMC), Prof. Dr. Yves Sintomer (Université de Paris 8), Prof. Dr. Christian Lequesne (Sciences Po, Paris), Prof. Dr. Michel Wieviorka (EHESS, Paris), Prof. Dr. Enzo Traverso (Cornell University), Prof. Dr. Loïc Wacquant (University of California Berkeley), Prof. Dr. Michael Zürn (WZB Berlin Social Science Center), Prof. Dr. Raimo Tuomela (University of Helsinki/University Munich), Dr. Maj Tuomela (University of Helsinki/University of Munich), Prof. Dr. Geoffrey M. Hodgson (Loughborough University London), Prof. Dr. Milica Bakić-Hayden (University of Pittsburgh), Prof. Julia Jansen (KU Leuven), Prof. Tiana Bakić-Hayden (El Colegio de México), Prof. Dr. Sven Ove Hansson (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), Prof. Dr. Burkhard Liebsch (University of Bochum), Prof. Dr. Robin Celikates (Free University of Berlin), Prof. Dr. Florian Bieber (University of Graz), Prof. Dr. Cynthia Fleury (CNAM Paris), Prof. Dr. Alfred Nordmann (TU Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Dominique Méda (Université Paris Dauphine), Prof. Dr. Jacques Sémelin (Sciences Po, Paris), Prof. Dr. Marc Lazar (Sciences Po, Paris), Prof. Dr. Kirsten Dickhaut (University of Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. Reinhard Mehring (Heidelberg University of Education), Prof. Dr. Christian Krijnen (University of Amsterdam), Prof. Dr. Holger Zaborowski (University of Erfurt), Prof. Dr. em. Ruth Wodak (Lancaster University/University Vienna), Prof. Dr. Chantal Mouffe (University of Westminster), Prof. Dr. Manuela Bojadzijev (Humboldt University of Berlin), Prof. Dr. Max Kölbel (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Konrad Ott (Universität Kiel), Prof. Dr Howard Williamson (University of South Wales), Prof. Dr. Eric Gordy (University College London), Prof. Dr. em. Don Ihde (Stony Brook University New York), Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Dipl. Phys. Klaus Kornwachs (University of Cottbus/University of Shanghai), Prof. Dr. Heiner Hastedt (University of Rostock), Prof. Dr. Katherine Verdery (The City University of New York), Prof. Dr. Christina Schües (University of Lübeck), Prof. Dr. Pascal Delhom (University of Flensburg), Prof. Dr. Alfred Hirsch (University of Witten/Herdecke), Prof. Dr. Klaus Wiegerling (TU Kaiserslautern), Prof. Dr Balazs Trencsenyi (CEU Budapest/Vienna), Prof. dr Max Bergholz (Concordia University, Montreal), Prof. Dr. Davor Džalto (Stockholm School of Theology), Prof. Dr. em. Carl Mitcham (Colorado School of Mines), Prof. Dr. Hans- Martin Schönherr-Mann (University of Munich), Prof. Dr. Philip Golub (Université américaine de Paris), Prof. Dr. David Schweikard (University of Flensburg), Prof. Dr. Anne Reichold (University of Flensburg), Prof. Dr. Carla Danani (University of Macerata), Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie, Vertr.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaminski (RWTH Aachen), Prof. Dr. Thomas Bedorf (University of Hagen), Vertr.-Prof. Dr. Frieder Vogelmann (University of Frankfurt), Dipl.-Math. Uwe Küster (Universität Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. em. Robin Attfield (Cardiff University), Prof. Dr. Gilbert Achcar (SOAS, University of London), Prof. Dr. Xavier Bougarel (EHESS, Paris), Prof. Dr. Catherine Samary (Université Paris Dauphine), Prof. Dr. Esther Jeffers (Université de Picardie), Prof. Dr. Vincent Charbonnier (Université Toulouse 2-Jean-Jaurès), Prof. Dr. Claude Serfati (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin), Prof. Dr. Asger Sørensen (University of Copenhagen), Prof. Dr. Annette Hilt (Cusanus Hochschule), Prof. Dr. Noëlle Burgi (CNRS- CESSP-Université Paris I), Prof. Dr. Ádám Takács (ELTE, Budapest), Prof. Dr. Smail Rapic (University of Wuppertal), Prof. Dr. Kenneth R. Westphal (Bogazici University, Istanbul), Prof. Dr. Marius Stan (Boston College), Prof. Dr. Luigi Caranti (University of Catania), Prof. Dr. Felix Pinkert (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Sophie Loidolt (University of Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Andreas Luckner (University of Stuttgart), Prof. Dr. Nicole C. Karafyllis (TU Braunschweig), Prof. Dr Veljko Vujačić (Oberlin College), Prof. Dr. Ludger Schwarte (Kunstakademie Düsseldorf), Prof. Dr. Ruth Sonderegger (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Prof. Dr. Richard Klein (Freiburg Conservatory of Music), Prof. Dr. Katrin Solhdju (Université de Mons), Prof. Dr. Maftei Stefan-Sebastian (Babes-Bolyai University), Prof. Dr. Virgilio Cesarone (D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara), Prof. Dr. Jo Shaw (University of Edinburgh), Prof. Dr. Imre Ungváry-Zrínyi (Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca - president, Hungarian Philosophical Society in Transylvania), Prof. Dr. Walter Otto Ötsch (Cusanus Hochschule), Prof. dr. Catalin Avramescu (University of Bucharest/University of Helsinki), Prof. Dr.phil. Dipl.-Psych. Matthias Kettner (Universität Witten/Herdecke), Prof. Dr. Peter Vallentyne (University of Missouri), Prof. Dr. Fred Rush (University of Notre Dame), Ass.-Prof. Jovana Davidovic (University of Iowa), Prof. Dr. Claude Calame (Directeur d’études à l’EHESS, Paris), Prof. Dr. Thierry Balzacq (Sciences Po, Paris), Prof. Dr. Nathalie Clayer (Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique- EHESS, Paris), Prof. Dr. Cécile Jouhanneau (Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier), Dr. Fabio Giomi (CNRS, CETOBaC, Paris), Dr. Eva von Redecker (University of Verona), Dr. Martin Brasser (University of Applied Sciences Lucerne), PD Dr. phil. nat. Johannes Lenhard (TU Kaiserslautern), Prof. Dr. G. M. Tamás (CEU, Vienna), Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Holzleithner (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Martin Saar (University of Frankfurt), Ass.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Oberprantacher (University of Innsbruck), Junior-Prof. Dr. Ulrike Pompe-Alama (University of Stuttgart), Ass.-Prof. Gregor Kanitz (University of Guangzhou), Ass.-Prof. Donata Romizi (University of Vienna), PD Dr. Monika Mokre (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Dr. Andreas Poltermann (Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung), Dr. Alexander Friedrich (TU Darmstadt), Dr. Elke Uhl (University of Stuttgart), Dr. Werner Dreier (erinnern.at), Dr. Martina Bitunjac (University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Siniša Malešević (University College Dublin), Prof. Dr. Zsolt Bagi (University of Pécs), Prof. Dr. Tamás Seregi (ELTE, Budapest), Prof. Dr. Theodore Schatzki (University of Kentucky/Lancaster University), Prof. Dr. Gábor Boros (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary), Prof. Dr. Bob Brecher (University of Brighton), Prof. Dr. Veronika Darrida (ELTE, Budapest), Prof. Dr. Zoltán Pogátsa (University of West Hungary), Prof. Dr. Attila Szigeti (Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca), Prof. Dr. em. Gereon Wolters (University of Konstanz), Ass.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Szanto (University of Copenhagen), Ass.-Prof. Kareem Khubchandani (Tufts University), Dr. Thore Prien (University of Flensburg), Prof. Dr. Sándor Laczkó (University of Szeged - secretary, Hungarian Philosophical Society), Prof. Dr. Tamás Pavlovits (University of Szeged, Hungary), Prof. Dr. Jean-Louis Marie (Sciences Po Lyon), Ass.-Prof. Ronald Loeffler (Grand Valley State University), Ass.-Prof. Olga Lucia Lizzini (VU University of Amsterdam), PD Dr. Wolfram Ette (University of Munich), PD Dr. Christian Grüny (Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics Frankfurt), Ass.-Prof. Veljko Dubljević (North Carolina State University), Dr. Christian Schemmel (University of Manchester), Mr. Leonie Smith (University of Manchester), Mr. Kerstin Reibold (University of Tromsø), Prof. Dr. Gideon Calder (Swansea University), Dr. Charles Djordjevic (St. Olaf College), Dr. Jan Müller (University of Basel), Dr. Fabian Dembski (University of Stuttgart), Dr. Anthony Faramelli (University of London), Mr. Péter Vataščin (Forum Minority Research Institute, Slovakia), Dr. Constantinos V. Proimos (Cyprus University of Technology and at the Hellenic Open University), Dr. Marta Simó (ISOR, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Dr.-Ing. habil. Martin Thomas Horsch (UK Research and Innovation), Dr.-Ing. Björn Schembera (Universität Stuttgart), Mr. Samuel Ducourant (École Normale Supérieure), Mr. Valentina Moro (University of Padua), Dr. Mihail Evans (New Europe College, Bucharest), Ass.-Prof. Dr. Graham Finlay (University College Dublin), Dr. Andrea Oldofredi (University of Lausanne), Dr. Alexandre Métraux (Université de Lorraine Nancy), Dr. Kevin Liggieri (TU Darmstadt), Dr. Chrys Papaioannou (Birkbeck, University of London), Oliver Honer (Hochschule Esslingen), Dr. Jens Kertscher (TU Darmstadt),