The Trump administration is turning global academia on its head. American universities are being targeted, funding is being cut off abruptly and students are being deported from the country. To what extent are these developments affecting Leiden? ‘It’s getting scary to say certain things.’

Are you a member of communist, socialist or totalitarian parties, and is your research protected against gender ideology? Researchers at Wageningen University recently received an email from the US Geological Survey with these questions. On the university’s advice, they decided not to fill out the questionnaire.

Leiden also has an advice at the ready. ‘Do not fill it out’, reads the concise recommendation on the staff website, though no researchers here are known to have received such a questionnaire so far. The university finds the developments in the US to be ‘a source of great concern’ and is organizing a symposium on Friday entitled ‘A political attack on academic freedom in the US’. During this event, experts will discuss the consequences for Dutch research and how researchers can protect themselves from undue interference.

Assistant professor Jessie Morgan-Owens, a literature researcher and US citizen, is one of the speakers. ‘I asked my students – who study the United States – how many of them would still consider travelling to the US at this point’, she says. ‘Only two of them raised their hand.’

‘At the border, they can ask you to show the contents of your phone. If you’re a US citizen like me, you can refuse – though that causes a lot of headaches. But if you’re not a citizen, they can deny you entry at the border. It wouldn’t be so bad if they just sent you back, but people are being detained for weeks until everything has been processed. Foreigners are now advised to bring a blank phone or laptop instead.

‘The problem is that people are scared to break a rule, but no one knows exactly what the rules are. Student visas are being revoked, but no one knows why.’

Masked officers

This week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to comb through the social media accounts of visa applicants, including students. Anyone who has expressed criticism of the US or Israel in the past may now be refused entry.

Students and researchers are being arrested and deported. Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD candidate at Tufts University in the state of Massachusetts, was apprehended on the street by masked officers last week. She is currently being held in a cell in Louisiana, awaiting a hearing. Student Mahmoud Khalil and researcher Badar Khan Suri are also being detained there. They have protested in support of Palestine and are alleged to have ties to Hamas, according to the government. Jessie Morgan-Owens: ‘I’m from Louisiana and I can tell you: the prisons there are no joke.’

‘The visas held by the people who are now being detained are the same visas I used when I was studying’, says assistant professor and Americanist Sara Polak. ‘As someone who talks to journalists and who has called Trump a racist, I’m very easy to find. I stand by those statements, but it’s becoming scary to keep making them. I’ve never felt compelled to ask a journalist not to mention my name, but I’m starting to feel like maybe I should. I never thought it would come to that.

‘I have a friend who specialises in Iran, and at one point it became clear that she was on the regime’s radar and would no longer be safe there. As an Americanist, I’ve taught people that free speech is important in the US, so this feels very alienating.’

Funding

Simone Joosten, associate professor in immunology, has also noticed that certain subjects have suddenly become taboo in the US. She conducts research into tuberculosis, including in collaboration with researchers from the US National Institute of Health (NIH), which has seen major layoffs since Trump took office.

‘I think tuberculosis research is more international than any other field’, she says. ‘Many colleagues from the US are no longer allowed to work with us: they’re not allowed to share their data, and we can no longer submit joint applications for grants. The NIH has cut off a large portion of funding with immediate effect. Normally, you receive funding for several years. If there is anything left over after that, you can extend the project for a year. Now, it’s no longer possible to apply for this, because they literally removed that button from the system. So there are clinical trials currently underway that can’t be completed as a result. It’s awful.’

Joosten fears that the cuts to aid organisation USAID and vaccination platform Gavi will have major long-term consequences. ‘Those organisations are responsible for vaccination programmes. So we’re now facing the prospect of entire populations, African children in particular, not receiving the right vaccinations. The first vaccine that babies normally get is against tuberculosis, and now they’re not getting it. The number of cases will increase dramatically, while at the same time, the capacity to test and evaluate vaccines will decrease drastically.’

Annemieke Geluk, professor of immunodiagnostics of mycobacterial infectious diseases, leprosy and tuberculosis shares the same gloomy outlook. ‘I’m currently in Cape Town for meetings which our US colleagues were unfortunately not allowed to attend. The funding for the extension of this project is now also at risk.

‘We submitted a paper on leprosy research and one of the American co-authors was forced to withdraw – not because of the content, but because they’re no longer allowed to publish. This is destroying years-long collaborations and it threatens to set science back.’

The impoverishment of academia

Americanist Polak has not encountered any direct problems yet, but she is on her guard: ‘I’m currently working on an ERC project, so that’s EU money and safe. But the research includes topics like racism and that requires collaborating with American academics and travelling there. That’s going to be more difficult. Will my team and I still be able to go? Is it safe for queer PhD candidates to come with me? I don’t want them to be detained. I’m very committed to my research, but perhaps I should just stay away from there. Maybe I should ask the ERC if I can adapt my project. But at the same time, I think this research is very important, especially now.’

Morgan-Owens: ‘These developments will have an impact for generations to come. If access to education is restricted in America, for example by the closing of the Department of Education or the abolition of affirmative action, a situation could arise where universities no longer have the essential diversity of thought. Democracy will suffer because of this. It will lead to a massive impoverishment of academia.’

Joosten remains resolute: ‘All you can do now as a university is continue protesting. I hope either the Dutch government or the EU will fill the gap and expand funding opportunities.’ ‘There is a US defence umbrella that also covers us’, says Polak. ‘But there’s also a research umbrella: a huge share of global funding comes from the US federal government. We can never take that over. We currently accept one or two at-risk scholars a year. But the Netherlands has fourteen universities, and the US has over four thousand – and we’re already cutting back.’

Morgan-Owens: ‘In the end, there’s no field of study that can permanently escape the watchful eye of the state. Just look at scientists who studied transgenic mice and have suddenly become targets because the word ‘trans’ appears in their research. Until we are all free to do our research, nobody is. Without that freedom, we lack the free discourse necessary for a healthy democracy.’