«The responsibility of Universities facing Digital Gender-Based Violence» POWES Conference
Uno de los grandes desafios que presenta el abordaje de las Violencias Sexuales en los contextos universitarios es la asunción de responsabilidades y rendeición de cuentas que las mismas instituciones han de tener ante un problema que las ahoga desde dentro. La dificultad de este desafío es incluso más amplia cuando se han de abordar las violencias sexuales digitales en los contextos universitarios. Estas violencias, muchas veces no aparecen en políticas ni protocolos universitarios, quedadon invisibilizadas y entendidas como ajenas a las instituciones.
En este línea de responsabiliad y violencias digitales nuestras compañeras Adriana Gil-Juárez (Co Investigadora Principal de nuestro proyecto) y Núria Vergés presentaron su comunicación «The responsibility of Universities facing Digital Gender-Based Violence» en la conferencia POWES de hace pocos días.
Os dejamos aquí el vídeo y el abstract de la conferencia para poder disfrutar de la conferencia de nuestras compañeras!
Vídeo
Abstract
In order to contribute to free and safe digital relationships for all it is urgent to point out the duty of universities to face online gender-based violence (DGBV). To do so, we reviewed the scientific production on the subject, supplementing it with institutional and feminist activist publications from our Catalan-Spanish context, then we did a thematic analysis of the concerns raised in 8 exploratory focus groups (FG) with participants traditionally not reflected in the literature on sex-and gender-related violence: transgender, with diverse physical or mental abilities, with psychological/psychiatric disorders, racialised, survivors of violence, outsourced staff, and people living as women in masculinised careers. Literature signals that DGBV ranges from threats to verbal and sexual violence with a high technological component, however universities do not usually confront it, so feminist, LGTBIQ* and women organizations have already activated self-defence strategies. These could be implemented by universities, for instance using their ICT and human resources to prevent digital divide and digital defencelessness; detecting and raising awareness of DGBV among the community; and finally, supporting survivors. Participants in the FG also highlight several issues universities must confront: the need to go beyond a punitive logic that does not face the structural problem; the duty of universities to create a climate adverse to DGBV; the education on how knowledge is produced and transmitted within hierarchic teams; and the inclusion of DGBV in their guidelines, including any aggression or harassment between members of the academic community happening in off-campus virtual environments.
