North American universities and the rise of Trump through the eyes of professors

Abstract

This collection presents a series of interviews conducted by Revista Maracanan with professors from North American universities, analyzing the impacts of Donald Trump's rise to power on the academic environment. The initiative focuses on the tensions caused by conservative policies, which include threats of budget cuts and interventions in admissions processes and scholarships. Under the guise of combating supposed anti-Semitic and anti-conservative ideologies, such actions are interpreted as attempts to curtail the autonomy of independent centers of thought. The reflection connects the institutional crises in universities to a broader geopolitical scenario of international conflicts in 2026, suggesting that domestic authoritarianism and global violence share common roots in the erosion of institutions of knowledge.