What makes academia (un)safe: experiences, observations, and consequences of gender-based violence in different stages of individual researchers' careers
ENThis chapter presents an analysis of qualitative research data collected through 54 individual interviews with researchers about their experiences, observations and consequences of gender-based violence in universities. The interview data were collected as part of the H2020 UniSAFE research project Gender-Based Violence and Institutional Response: Building a Knowledge Base and Operational Tools to Make Universities and Research Organisations Safe. In this chapter, gender and intersectional theory as well as feminist violence studies are applied to examine individual stories, incidents or events that may be regarded not as violence according to legal definitions but as patterned practices of power, domination and inequality in academia. The collected empirical data show that victims often suffer nuanced verbal and non-verbal behaviours that can expand the conventional understanding of sexual harassment as well as psychological, sexual, physical and economic violence. Intersecting inequalities in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and/or migrant status significantly increase the risks of experiencing gender-based violence due to a heightened dependency on supervisors or managers and sexist or racist attitudes and prejudices that exist within universities. Many interviewees reported negative effects on their physical and mental health as well as their personal and professional lives, which impacted their decision to change employment, switch research fields or leave academia. [Publisher annotation]
