\n<\/p>\n
It was on a US-bound flight in March, as Brian Sandberg stressed about whether he would be stopped at security, that the American historian knew the time had come for him to leave his home country.<\/p>\n
For months, he had watched Donald Trump\u2019s administration unleash a multipronged attack on academia \u2013 slashing funding, targeting international students and deeming certain fields and even keywords off limits. As his plane approached the US, it felt as though the battle had hit home, as Sandberg worried that he would face reprisals over comments he had made during his travels to the French media on the future of research in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes you think about what your status is as a researcher and the principle of academic freedom,\u201d he said. \u201cThings have really changed \u2026 The entire system of research and higher education in the United States is really under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon after, he became one of the nearly 300 researchers to apply for a French university\u2019s groundbreaking offer of \u201cscientific asylum\u201d. Launched by Aix-Marseille University, the programme was among the first in Europe to offer reprieve to researchers reeling from the US crackdown on academia, promising three years of funding for about 20 researchers.<\/p>\n
Last week, Sandberg was revealed as one of the 39 researchers shortlisted for the programme. \u201cThe American system is being destroyed at the moment,\u201d he told the 80 reporters who turned up to meet the candidates. \u201cI think a lot of people in the United States and as well as here in Europe have not understood the level to which all of higher education is being targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>\u00c9ric Berton, the president of Aix-Marseille University, likened the programme to the US welcoming academics from France during the second world war.<\/span> Photograph: Theo Giacometti\/The Guardian<\/p>\n As reports began to emerge of funding freezes, cuts and executive orders targeting institutions across the Atlantic, institutions across Europe sprang into action, announcing plans to lure US-based academics.<\/p>\n At Aix-Marseille University, hundreds of applications came in from researchers tied to institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Nasa, Columbia, Yale and Stanford. Three months after they launched their programme \u2013 named Safe Place for Science \u2013 the university said it had received more than 500 inquiries.<\/p>\n It was a glimpse of the \u201chistoric\u201d moment the world was facing, said \u00c9ric Berton, the university\u2019s president. \u201cMore than 80 years ago, as France was under occupation and repression, America welcomed exiled researchers, offering them a helping hand and allowing them to keep science alive,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, in a sad reversal of history, some American scientists have arrived in France in search of a space for freedom, thought and research.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, the university opened its doors, allowing reporters to meet a handful of the Americans who were in the final running to join the programme. As high-profile battles play out between universities such as Harvard and the White House, all of them asked that their institutions not be named, citing concerns that their employers could face reprisals.<\/p>\n Some declined to speak to the media, while others asked that their full names not be used, offering a hint of how the Trump administration\u2019s actions are sowing anxiety among academics. \u201cThe worry is that we\u2019ve already seen that scientists are being detained at the border. Granted they\u2019re not US citizens, but they\u2019re even saying now that if you speak out against the government, they will deport you,\u201d said a biological anthropologist who asked to be identified only as Lisa. \u201cAnd so I don\u2019t need anything against me at the moment until I can officially move here with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>James, a climate scientist, said he had mixed feelings about leaving the US for France.<\/span> Photograph: Theo Giacometti\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Together the researchers painted a picture of a profession that had been plunged into uncertainty as the US government slashes spending on research grants and dismantles the federal institutions that manage and hand out funding. Months into Trump\u2019s second presidency, politics is increasingly blurring into academia as the government works to root out anything it deems as \u201cwokeism\u201d from the post-secondary world.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of censorship now, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d said Carol Lee, an evolutionary biologist, pointing to the list of terms now seen as off-limits in research grant applications. \u201cThere are a lot of words that we\u2019re not allowed to use. We\u2019re not allowed to use the words diversity, women, LGBTQ.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/span><\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n While the swift pace of change had left many nervous about what may lie ahead, many were not taking any chances. \u201cPeople are moving, for sure,\u201d said Lee. \u201cA lot of top people have already moved to China. And China is laying out the red carpet. If people are getting an offer from Canada, people are moving to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n For Lisa, the biological anthropologist, the reality of dismantling her life in the US and moving her husband, a schoolteacher, and their two kids across the Atlantic was starting to sink in. \u201cIt\u2019s excitement, but it\u2019s nerve-racking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She knew she had to get out when it became clear that Trump had won a second term. Months later, she has found a potential path to do so, but is still wrapping her head around all that taking part in Aix-Marseille University\u2019s programme would entail.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a big pay cut,\u201d she said. \u201cMy kids are super gung-ho. My husband is just worried that he won\u2019t find a job. Which is my worry too, because I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to afford four of us on my salary.\u201d<\/p>\n But for her, and several others on the shortlist, the view was that there were few other options. \u201cIt\u2019s a very discouraging time to be a scientist,\u201d said James, a climate researcher who asked that his full name not be used. \u201cI feel America has always had a sort of anti-intellectual strain \u2013 it happens to be very ascendant right now. It\u2019s a relatively small proportion that doesn\u2019t trust scientists, but it\u2019s unfortunately a very powerful segment.\u201d<\/p>\n His wife had also been shortlisted for the same programme in southern France, leaving the couple on the brink of uprooting the lives and careers they had spent decades building in the US. \u201cI have very mixed feelings,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful that we\u2019ll have the opportunity, but really quite sad that I need the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was on a US-bound flight in March, as Brian Sandberg stressed about whether he would be stopped at security, that the American historian knew the time had come for him to leave his home country. For months, he had watched Donald Trump\u2019s administration unleash a multipronged attack on academia \u2013 slashing funding, targeting international<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[2916,473,2917,2915,2918,438,2477,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-10112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-academics","9":"tag-american","10":"tag-asylum","11":"tag-destroyed","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-leaving","14":"tag-scientific","15":"tag-system"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}