Olga Ceran awarded the Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowship 2025/26
Dr Olga Ceran has been selected as a 2025/26 Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellow. As one of 11 fellows in this year’s cohort, she will work on a project titled ‘The Linguistic Dimension of Academic Freedom: A Human Rights Analysis of Higher Education in Europe’.
About the project
Language policies in European higher education have become increasingly contested. Once analysed mainly in reference to minority rights, they now intertwine with debates on internationalisation and the rise of English-language instruction across non-English-speaking countries. Yet little attention has been paid to whether policies that require or restrict the use of foreign languages can, in some circumstances, violate academic freedom as a legal right. At the same time, recent court cases and regulatory debates suggest that the language of instruction is increasingly viewed not merely as a technical or linguistic-policy choice, but also as a tool for influencing educational content and institutional self-governance. Such measures may be driven by different actors and motivations, but typically engage a complex matrix of legal rights and duties: the right to education, minority protection, the state’s linguistic identity, and – as now argued – academic freedom. This project maps out relevant legal claims, clarifies the scope and nature of the 'linguistic dimension' of academic freedom, and shows how human rights may inform language laws and policies in Europe.
The project will expand on Olga’s previous research undertaken within the AFITE project led by Dr Vasiliki Kosta.
About the Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowship
The Mellon/Scholars At Risk Academic Freedom Fellowship programme provides a research stipend and supportive professional community for researchers to develop and share work on academic freedom and/or related higher education values. Over the course of the programme, fellows complete their proposed project, participate in regular virtual workshop sessions, and gain exposure to SAR’s programming and networks.
More information about the fellowship and Olga’s project can be found on the SAR Website.