Renowned American legal scholar Austin Sarat, a founder of the humanistic study of law, on the responsibility of public intellectuals in the United States, the bracing “slap in the face” Trump dealt to universities, and the path forward in defending academic freedom and democracy.

In June 2026, the mathematician Misha Verbitsky ended up in an Armenian jail, caught in the automatic machinery of intergovernmental agreements that Russia has pressed into service for political persecution. Starting from that story of police and politics, his conversation with T-invariant editor Alexander Sergeev turns steadily more philosophical. How is polarization destroying scientific unity? Why doesn’t a powerful intellect protect anyone from insane ideas? And how does the “intelligent mold” of AI call into question both human cognitive exceptionalism and the value of mathematical truth, returning us to first principles — the joy of communication and pure aesthetics?

In 1993, Marina Bykova became the youngest Doctor of Sciences in the humanities in Russia. Today she is a professor at an American university and editor-in-chief of the journal Studies in East European Thought. Her professional life has been devoted to building and sustaining dialogue between the Russian philosophical tradition and the international academic community. In an interview with T-invariant, Marina Bykova reflects on why Russian academia has been paralyzed by fear, how the cultural project of the “Russian World” turned into a political ideology, and what happens to philosophy when it loses its autonomy.

Seven weeks in X’s (formerly Twitter) algorithmic feed — and American users’ political views permanently shifted to the right; turning the algorithm off reversed almost none of them. These are the results of an independent study conducted in 2023. One of its authors, Paris School of Economics professor Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, explained in an interview with T-invariant why the algorithm proved to be such a powerful tool for shaping opinions.

The DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policy and Trump’s actions to eliminate such initiatives are sparking heated debates among scholars. Some see DEI principles as the politicization of science, a form of censorship, and a violation of meritocracy. Others strongly disagree. T-invariant spoke with sociologist and historian Dmitry Dubrovsky about how DEI mechanisms worked in the United States, why they face so much criticism from the academic community, and what Trump’s policy on inclusion and diversity will lead to.

How did universities stop being spaces of freedom, politics turn into hatred, and art become a lifestyle? Why has everyone suddenly become obsessed with postcolonial studies, and what is AI still incapable of? And why, amid such tectonic shifts, write books about Ancient Greece? T-Invariant spoke with Mikhail Yampolsky, recipient of the George Gamow Award founded by the Russian American Science Association (RASA-America).

The recent 12-day Iran-Israel war has reignited discussions about Iran’s nuclear program. Was it ever genuinely peaceful? How significant is Russia’s role in supporting Iran’s nuclear ambitions? Are the Iranians capable of building a bomb right now? T-invariant discussed these questions with Dmitry Kovchegin, author of a publication by the Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies on Russian-Iranian nuclear cooperation.

June 22, 1941, marked the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Today, 84 years later, Ukrainian cities are again under bombardment—but now the aggressor is Russia. How has the war in Ukraine altered our understanding of that past conflict? What revelations about history does the present compel us to confront? T-invariant discussed these questions with Alexander Dmitriev, a historian and native of Kherson, now a visiting researcher at the European University Viadrina (Germany).

In June 2023, T-invariant published an interview with Mikhail Sokolov, a sociologist of education and science and a professor at the European University in St. Petersburg. Among other topics, the scholar suggested that the war would have little impact on the state of social sciences in Russia. Has his opinion changed two years later? What is happening to the social sciences today, and what lies ahead for them? These questions are now being discussed with Mikhail Sokolov by Sergei Erofeev, a sociologist at Rutgers University (USA) and president of RASA, the global association of Russian-speaking scholars.