MANCEPT Workshop on Ethics of Academia

We are inviting submissions for this workshop to be held as part of this year’s MANCEPT workshops. The Workshops will take place at the University of Manchester, from 2nd to 4th September 2026.

Recent resurgence of interest in the ethics of academia has sparked debates about the ideals and ongoing practices within academic institutions. These debates often highlight the tension between the aspirational goals of academia – such as promoting systemic equity, inclusion, and access – and the constraints imposed by socio-political realities, including discrimination, bias and lack of diversity, institutional backlash against specific disciplines, and budgetary and financial pressures. Our panel contributes to these debates by focusing on challenges that academics face specifically in their role as academics. These include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Special Relationships: Academics find themselves embedded in special relationships, most notably with students. For example, increasing attention to student well-being and duties of care must be balanced against the pressures of overwork and the ongoing financialization of higher education. Beyond students, professional and personal relationships among academics with fellow colleagues, elite institutions, politicians, and wealthy donors play a significant role in shaping norms, influencing research agendas and funding priorities, and reinforcing power imbalances and structural inequalities. These dynamics raise a variety of questions: What forms of transparency and accountability are ethically required when research is shaped by powerful institutional or financial interests? Who bears responsibility for protecting academic integrity when such relationships distort disciplinary priorities or public debate? What are the responsibilities of academics towards the public? 

• Power and Accountability: Academics play crucial roles in peer review and hiring processes. Yet both formal and informal power imbalances can disadvantage junior or marginalized scholars, raising serious ethical concerns about fairness, transparency, and accountability in academic gatekeeping.

• Academic Freedom and Public Responsibility: Academic research is expected to inform public debate. This raises questions about the responsibilities academics have toward the public, as well as the boundaries and obligations of academic freedom. These questions have taken on renewed urgency in a global context of rising authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, in which academic freedom is increasingly being curtailed by state power.

• Invisible Labour and Exploitation: Much of academic work—such as refereeing journal articles, reviewing grant applications, and committee service—is unpaid, unrecognized, and often performed beyond contractual obligations. Meanwhile, private corporations frequently profit from these contributions. This prompts critical questions about the ethics of academic labour and whether certain aspects of academic work should be considered exploitative.

• Diversity and Justice: Academia remains disproportionately white, male, and middle-class. This lack of diversity raises not only questions of justice and access, but also epistemic concerns about how it impacts the core functions of academia—such as teaching, research, and institutional credibility.

• Academic Institutions and Campus Protest: Recent student protests have renewed urgent questions about the role of academics and academic institutions in moments of political unrest. What responsibilities do faculty have toward protesting students? How should institutions balance commitments to academic freedom, free speech, and political neutrality—especially when student activism challenges institutional interests or state-aligned narratives? The growing crackdown on student expression and faculty solidarity has highlighted the ethical stakes of institutional responses and the precarity of dissent within the academy.

• Global Academic Solidarity: The deliberate targeting and destruction of universities and educational infrastructure—most visibly in occupied Palestine, where institutions of higher learning have been systematically demolished — raises profound ethical questions for the global academic community. What obligations of solidarity do academics and institutions bear toward colleagues and students whose universities have been destroyed by military force or imperial power? How should these obligations shape decisions about institutional partnerships, research collaborations, and academic exchange with states responsible for such destruction?
• Academia and AI use: The rise of AI is particularly challenging for higher education. It raises questions of whether and if so how students should be trained to engage with AI. It also necessitates universities to formulate policies concerning AI use in teaching and exams. Are there general guidelines for such policies that ensure fair procedures, and how should universities and academics handle cases of AI cheating by their students?   

We are interested in these or any other topic related to the ethics of academia. By engaging with these issues, the panel aims to deepen ongoing discussions about what academia is, what it ought to be, and how we might reimagine academic life in more just and sustainable ways.

Submissions should be suitable for 30 minutes of presentation + 30 minutes of Q&A.

Please submit your anonymized abstract (300-500 words) by 20th April 2026 using this form:  https://forms.gle/UVP6ctu9uAVmko7W6

Participants must pay fees for registration and dinner; further information about costs will be provided soon.

For any questions, please contact Kritika Maheshwari (k.maheshwari@tudelft.nl)