On 27 and 28 November 2025, scholars from eight countries gathered at Freie Universität Berlin for the interdisciplinary workshop “Contested Spaces of Democracy and Inclusion in European Universities (CONTESTED)”. Funded by Una Europa and the Einstein Foundation Berlin, the international workshop addressed anti-democratic tendencies and their reverberations within the European higher education landscape. Particular attention was paid to the European Universities Initiative and the European university alliances supported under this initiative.

Organized by Dr Daniel Schumann and Einstein Prof Kathrin Zippel, PhD (Freie Universität Berlin), the workshop offered an interdisciplinary programme that brought together theoretical perspectives, empirical analyses, and practical insights. The event was framed by three keynote lectures delivered by internationally renowned scholars: In her conceptually oriented opening keynote, Prof Dr Jo-Anne Dillabough (University of Cambridge) addressed universities in the age of violent modernity. Prof Dr Bjørn Stensaker (University of Oslo) focused his keynote on the (de-)democratizing potential of European university alliances. The closing keynote by Prof Dr Mieke Verloo (Radboud University) examined the interplay between knowledge politics and politics of autocratization and discussed strategies of resistance.

The workshop also included a public panel discussion entitled “Guardians of Democracy and Inclusion? European Universities in Challenging Times”, to which representatives of European university alliances from the Berlin region were invited. The event was opened by the Executive Vice President of Freie Universität Berlin, Prof Dr Verena Blechinger-Talcott. The panel, which included Prof Dr Andrea Dorothea Bührmann (University of Göttingen) alongside the keynote speakers, discussed in particular how European university alliances can use their institutional scope to not only counter attacks on democracy, diversity, and inclusion, but also to actively create more inclusive and democratic spaces.