Speaking Across Silences: Academic Freedom, Care, and Responsibility

This curated essay collection reflects on the ethical responsibilities of scholars and institutions amid rising violence, crises, and (geo)political tensions. Bringing together diverse voices from the editorial community of the Journal of Business Ethics, the essays collated here explore how academic freedom, care, dissent, and responsibility are negotiated within increasingly politicised and marketized university environments. The contributions address the lived experience of moral injury and vulnerability in proximity to war, the suppression of dissent in corporatized universities, the fragility of academic freedom under political pressure, and the ethical obligations of business ethics scholars confronting structural violence. This essay collection challenges the idea of institutional neutrality and calls for renewed attention to and engagement with care, courage, and collective responsibility in defending academic freedom and sustaining ethical scholarship in increasingly turbulent times.