This talk explores how Danish universities put national research-security guidelines into practice. Drawing on interviews with research-security professionals and administrative staff, alongside institutional documents, it examines how technologies of risk management shape decisions about international collaboration and distribute responsibility for recognising, assessing and accepting risk within universities.
The talk discusses how these arrangements make geopolitical uncertainty administratively actionable, while extending responsibility for anticipating possible future risks to academics and research leaders. It shows how research security becomes embedded in everyday organisational practice and reshapes the institutional conditions under which international engagement is assessed and authorised. It also examines how collaborations are justified as valuable and their risks considered manageable, raising questions about university governance and the responsibilities attached to international academic engagement.
The presentation will be followed by a Q&A and discussion.
About the presenter
Rachel Fishberg is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University and currently a Science Diplomacy Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS). Her research centres on the organisation and governance of universities, with a particular interest in science diplomacy, research security and the changing conditions of academic work.