“How do we know when we are no longer free?” Academic Freedom Panel: At Risk U Sawyer Seminar Event Series

ISAR Academic Freedom Panel Poster FINAL PDF.pdf

What does it look like when academic freedom is lost? Join us for a half-day seminar featuring scholars from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Ukraine and Cameroon. Panelists will share stories of the military coups, mass-firings, and widespread conflict that are currently devastating higher education in their home countries, as well as their perspective on what Americans can learn from their firsthand accounts. Join us for this one-of-a-kind opportunity to hear their stories and participate in collaborative discussion about the state of global academic freedom today.

At-a-Glance:

Organizers: Illinois Scholars at Risk with support from the Sawyer Seminar's At Risk U Series
Date: Friday, September 25
Time: 9am - 1pm (lunch buffet included)
Location: Illini Room A, Illini Union first floor
RSVP: Complete this form prior to September 15 (availability limited to 100 seats)
Contact: Rebecca Barry, barry12@illinois.edu

Speakers:

Dr. Nasim Sohail, DVM, MVSc, PhD, is a veterinary microbiologist with extensive experience in antimicrobial resistance, poultry disease research, and outbreak investigation. Currently serving as a Lecturer of Microbiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he has contributed to multiple international research collaborations and publications. His work bridges molecular microbiology and animal health, focusing on sustainable solutions for infectious disease control in poultry and livestock.

Dr. Moe Moe Aung is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a professor at the University of Mandalay, Myanmar. She is a bat ecologist, and her research focuses on bat ecology, limestone karst ecosystems, and viral surveillance. She is currently working with the Kingston Lab on a comprehensive review of Myanmar’s bats, including an updated checklist, taxonomic revisions, and assessments of their ecology and distribution, 25 years after the publication of the first comprehensive review. She has collaborated with several international researchers, and her findings have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Anastasiya Vasetska, DVM, PhD, is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Comparative Biosciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is a veterinary reproductive biologist whose research focuses on reproductive physiology, fertility, and novel approaches to contraception and sterilization in animals. Her current work investigates hormone-based methods for prepubertal sterilization and their long-term effects on reproductive development and fertility. Her research integrates reproductive endocrinology, molecular biology and behavioral assessment. She previously conducted research and taught veterinary medicine in Ukraine, Poland and Germany.

Dr. David Toh Kusi is Visiting Scholar at the School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Associate Professor at the École Normale Supérieure, University of Yaoundé I, and the University of Bamenda, Cameroon. He specializes in nineteenth and twentieth century British poetry, and decolonial studies intersecting digital humanities. He held a visiting position at the University of California, Merced - 2024-2025. His current projects include research on digital cartography of trauma in postmodern drama and a book on Wordsworth and Yeats: Vehicular Powers and Colonial Shadows in Romantic and Modern Discourses.