Professor Uma Kothari recently appeared on a panel discussion at the University of Melbourne. The discussion which asked, ‘Are universities part of the populism problem?’ featured Jeffery Bleich, former US Ambassador to Australia and current Chair of the Fulbright Board; Professor Glyn Davis, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne; and Maxine McKew, former politician and journalist now based at the University of Melbourne.
Prof Kothari argued that “They were both founded, Brexit and Trump, on instilling a fear of otherness,” she said. “Universities have an incredibly important role to play. We are global institutions in a way that was unimaginable two or three generations ago and I think we need to address that (fear of otherness) very seriously.”