36th Annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom
The Geopolitics of Academic Freedom:
The View from the Frontline
The annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson (DMN) Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom will take place on Thursday, November 5, 2026, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm. The event will support both in-person attendance and a livestream. Light refreshments will be provided for those who can attend in person. This lecture is sponsored by the Faculty Senate as a showcase event underscoring the U-M community’s collective interest in academic freedom.
The invited speaker is Michael Ignatieff, who served as President and Rector of Central European University (CEU) between 2016 and 2021, the turbulent years which saw CEU’s expulsion from Budapest and its re-establishment in Vienna. He now is a professor in CEU’s department of historical studies. Ignatieff came to CEU after serving as Edward R. Murrow Chair of Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Abstract
The Geopolitics of Academic Freedom:
The View from the Frontline
About Michael Ignatieff
An international commentator on contemporary issues of democracy, human rights, and governance and a Canadian citizen, Ignatieff is also an award-winning writer, teacher, former politician, and historian with a deep knowledge of Central and Eastern Europe.
Ignatieff received his doctorate in history from Harvard University and has held academic posts at Kings College, Cambridge, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. He served in the Canadian Parliament and was Leader of the Liberal Party. His books include The Needs of Strangers (1984), Scar Tissue (1992), Blood and Belonging (1993), The Warrior’s Honour (1997), Isaiah Berlin (1998), The Rights Revolution (2000), Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry (2001), The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (2004), Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics (2013), and The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World (2017). His latest book is On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times (2021)
He serves on the Board of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the advisory council of Ethics in AI at Oxford. He is the recipient of the Dan David Prize for the defense of academic freedom in 2021, the Symons Medal of the National Confederation Centre in Canada in 2023, and in 2024 the Princess of Asturias Prize in the Social Sciences. He holds fourteen honorary degrees.
The annual Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom is named for three U-M faculty members—Chandler Davis, Clement Markert, and Mark Nickerson—who in 1954 were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. All invoked constitutional rights and refused to answer questions about their political associations. The three were suspended from the University with subsequent hearings and committee actions resulting in the reinstatement of Markert, an assistant professor who eventually gained tenure, and the dismissal of Davis, an instructor, and Nickerson, a tenured associate professor.
The annual DMN Lecture series is supported by an endowed fund made possible through the generous contribution of an anonymous benefactor.