Power Dynamics

Science under siege: Anti-gender mobilizations and the struggle over epistemic power

Gender-based violence in research and academia is not only a violation of human rights—it is also a fundamental breach of research integrity. It undermines the principles of fairness, safety, accountability, and trust that are essential to responsible research environments. Yet institutional responses to gender-based violence often fall short, particularly when they prioritise reputation management over justice, fail to act on reports, or disregard the needs of those affected. These failures constitute what scholars have termed institutional betrayal—the harm that institutions inflict when they fail to protect those who depend on them. This presentation addresses institutional responsibility for tackling gender-based violence within the framework of research integrity, drawing on insights from the Horizon Europe project GenderSAFE. The project’s findings reveal the systemic and multi-level nature of institutional failures in addressing gender-based violence, including the absence of transparent procedures, weak accountability mechanisms, and a lack of protection from retaliation. Such shortcomings not only harm individuals, particularly those from minoritised groups, but also perpetuate unsafe and unequal research environments. To move forward, institutions need more than formal policies—they need institutional courage: the proactive commitment to confront harm, support those affected, and uphold the values they profess. This requires strong, ethical leadership and a shift in institutional cultures toward accountability, care, and equity. In this context, research integrity officers and practitioners have a key role to play, even if gender-based violence may not yet be seen as part of their remit. The keynote will explore how their role could evolve in relation to institutional efforts on gender-based violence, and how these efforts intersect with broader integrity challenges, including whistleblower protection, academic freedom, and non-discrimination. The presentation will offer a constructive reflection on the barriers and opportunities for embedding gender-based violence prevention and response into institutional research integrity frameworks. It will propose key principles and practical actions for institutions seeking to align their values with practice, anchored in transparency, inclusivity, and the voices of those most affected. Ultimately, fostering research integrity requires more than compliance: it requires courage, responsibility, and leadership at all levels.

Leadership, Courage, and Responsibility: Addressing Gender-Based Violence as a Matter of Research Integrity

In recent years, academic institutions have increasingly come under attack– politically, ideologically, and economically. While concerns over academic freedom are not new, we are now witnessing a global intensification of pressure on science and scholarship, particularly in fields that challenge traditional hierarchies and power relations. Gender appears to be at the center of these attacks, but they also target other issues connected to diversity, minorities, discrimination, and social justice more broadly. These areas of research are routinely dismissed as ideological, subversive, or unscientific. Individual scholars are being harassed, surveilled, or silenced through online campaigns, institutional complaints, or even legal threats. But the deeper issue at stake is not only what is being researched, but who holds the authority to define legitimate knowledge. Across different contexts, we observe systematic efforts to restrict academic freedom: from presidential decrees in the United States aimed at banning certain terms and concepts in research, to the outright prohibition of gender studies programs in Hungary– and similar pressures exist elsewhere. These are not isolated incidents. Rather, they are rooted in the broader ideological framework of the so-called anti-gender mobilizations. These are not simply reactions to progressive social change; they are proactive and organized efforts to delegitimize academic work that exposes and critiques systems of oppression– whether related to gender, race, sexuality, or other axes of inequality. In this sense anti-gender mobilizations do not represent only political mobilizations, but also struggles not over epistemic powerthe authority to determine what counts as knowledge, who is allowed to produce it, and whose perspectives are deemed valid. This keynote will unpack the genealogy of these mobilizations, tracing their origins, key actors, and discursive strategies. It will also reflect on how universities and research communities can– and should– respond. At stake is not only the protection of academic freedom, but the democratic potential of science itself: its ability to reflect, to question, and to imagine alternatives to existing structures of power. In a time of rising authoritarianism and deepening epistemic polarization, defending this potential has never been more urgent.