The ANU Academic Board is developing a statement to reaffirm the principles of academic freedom for the University, as it recognises that it's best defence against pressure to limit academic freedom from inside or out, is to have a clear statement on the fundamental principles of academic freedom and foster a University-wide conversation about the external and internal, formal and informal constraints to academic freedom.

To that ensure as many voices as possible are heard in the development of the Statement, the Working Party has organised organised a Town Hall event for this Wednesday 8 November from 4-5.30pm.

The ANU academic community are invited to a Town Hall lecture and discussion to provide critical input to the Board - to explore and discuss ideas around what academic freedom means to you, as an individual, as an academic and to the University as a whole.

Speaker: Professor John Fitzgerald

Director, CSI Swinburne Program for Asia-Pacific Social Investment and Philanthropy
President, the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Before joining Swinburne in 2013 John served five years as Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing where he directed the Foundation's China operations. Before that, he was Head of the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University and before that again directed the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies at the Australian National University.

In Canberra he served as Chair of the Education Committee of the Australia-China Council of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as chair of the Committee for National and International Cooperation of the Australian Research Council, and as International Secretary of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is currently the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

His research focuses on territorial government and civil society in China and on Australia's Asian diasporas. His publications have won international recognition, including the Joseph Levenson Prize of the US Association for Asian Studies and the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association.

Please share this event invitation with your colleagues so we get a good cross-section of the University attending the meeting to share their views.