As we began to write this piece and solicit interventions at the start of 2024, it felt as though issues of academic freedom had never been so pertinent. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we all became used to people wearing masks and covering their faces to protect society. By now these masks are off and we can clearly see everyone’s faces; we can read their lips and can understand their expressions and gestures. Words, however, are not coming freely from these mouths. The war on Gaza is just the last example of how questions of how to talk and what can be said permeate the academic community, undermining the essence of being a researcher, teacher and scholar. We, the editors of pariss felt that we should not remain silent on this topic, which affects all of us, albeit in rather different ways. Therefore, we decided to write a collective article in which we could combine voices of various experiences, believing that these various experiences would create a patchwork or collage of insights on how dilemmas of academic freedom appear in different guises in our experiences, depending on our situatedness. This led to a piece where each part is written by (an) author(s) responsible for their specific contribution to the conversation. The collective represents a shared authorship only to the extent that contributors of each part share the belief in the significance of assembling these reflections. The way this work is organized reflects this, with parts arranged in random order. There is no greater significance to be attributed to any one part or another. Rather, these are parallel recollections and reflections against the backdrop of a shared zeitgeist reminding us about our similar concerns and difficulties. Yet, at the same time, local milieus make these latter considerably differ.