When: Wednesday 14 October 2026 at 4:00pm–5.30pm
Where: The Board Room, 29 Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow and online with registration
here.
Abstract:
This paper examines how educators in U.K. higher education institutions can cultivate spaces for critical thinking and academic freedom in increasingly neoliberal and securitized learning environments, particularly when teaching students who may experience or fear state surveillance. Drawing on autoethnographic reflections from the author’s experiences as an educator, the paper explores the tensions between pedagogical commitments to open inquiry and the political sensitivities surrounding discussions of authoritarianism, dissent, and the status quo. Situated within scholarship on the neoliberalization of higher education and the internationalization of universities, the article engages with literature on teaching Chinese students in western institutions, including debates concerning self-censorship, state and transnational repression, and the influence of state power on classroom participation. The paper argues that assumptions about Chinese students as passive recipients of state ideology oversimplify the diverse ways students negotiate identity, risk, and political expression in transnational educational spaces. Instead, the study demonstrates how educators may foster conditions of trust and reflexivity without placing students in situations that could expose them to personal or political risk. The findings highlight the complexity of balancing inclusive pedagogy with institutional pressures linked to marketization, surveillance practices, and risk management within U.K. universities. The article contributes to wider debates on academic freedom by illustrating how pedagogical care, relational trust, and critical reflexivity can function as forms of resistance within neoliberalized institutions. It concludes by outlining implications for supporting meaningful critical engagement even where freedom of expression appears constrained or precarious.
Speaker Bio: Dr Sarah Liu is Senior Lecturer in Gender and Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the cross-national study of gender and politics, examining how political and social contexts shape gender gaps in political attitudes, political behaviour, and participation. While much of her scholarship is cross-national, she has a focus on Asian politics. She has published in leading Political Science journals, such as Political Research Quarterly and International Political Science Review. Sarah’s research and public engagement have also received international recognition. She has been recognised by the Apolitical Foundation as one of the 50 Most Influential Scholars and by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity as an Emerging Diversity Scholar. She has also appeared on BBC World and France 24 and is a frequent guest on BBC Radio Scotland, contributing to public discussions on gender, politics, and contemporary political affairs.
The Scottish Centre for China Research is grateful for the support of the MacFie Bequest for its seminar series.
For further information, contact Professor Jane Duckett <jane.duckett@glasgow.ac.uk>
First published: 13 October 2026
