Anti-Autocracy Summit

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Image from Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Description

In an era of creeping authoritarianism, increasing threats to academic freedom, and the politicisation of science, many researchers, communicators, and institutions have launched initiatives to safeguard open inquiry and evidence-based discourse. The Anti-Autocracy Summit brings these efforts together.

This first meeting in a new SciBeh series will convene scientists, academics, researchers, and science communicators who are actively working—or wish to work—against autocratic backsliding and its corrosive effects on scholarship. It will serve as a strategic stock-taking: What has worked? What hasn’t? What are we missing?

Our goal is to connect existing initiatives, identify synergies, and build a sustainable community over the coming months through two follow-up online workshops (February and March/April 2026) leading to a half-day in-person event at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Annual Convention in Barcelona on 27 May 2026.

Participants in this first summit will help shape the strategic agenda for the online workshops and the Barcelona event—deciding together which themes, tools, and collaborations can most effectively strengthen academic resilience and collective action. Join us to share experiences, learn from others, and co-create the next phase of our shared effort to defend scholarship and democratic values.

When?

Wednesday, 4 December 2025 | 14:00–18:00 UK (15:00–19:00 CET, 9 am–1 pm EST, 6 am–10 am PST)

Registration

Please register using this link registration form (Your registration data will be held in a UK institutional account that is compliant with GDPR.)

Contact

If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected]

Organization committee

• Stephan Lewandowsky
• Dawn Holford
• Christoph Abels
• Ulrike Hahn
• Vera Kempe
• Konstantinos Armaos
• SciBeh Team