VOICES OF THE AMERICAS FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Episode 1
Gender and Academic Freedom
Interviews with: Patsilí Toledo Vásquez, Anny Ocoró Loango and Ana Lucía Ramazzini Morales
Academic freedom is a fundamental human right for democracy. It ensures the production of knowledge with scientific rigor and free from external interference, the freedom to teach and learn within a framework of respect for human rights, and the dissemination of knowledge to society as a driving force for change toward greater social and environmental justice.
However, across the Americas, we still face enormous challenges in ensuring the full realization of this right, in contexts marked by structural inequalities, political pressures, and attacks on the production and circulation of knowledge.
In this inaugural episode, produced in partnership with the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and within the framework of the joint Fellowships initiative, we invite listeners to reflect on academic freedom through an intersectional lens that incorporates the dimensions of gender and race. Far from being an abstract or neutral principle, the ability to research, teach, and produce knowledge is shaped by inequalities that condition who can fully exercise this right and under what circumstances.
This highlights the urgency of strengthening its defense as a fundamental human right.
Guests
Patsilí Toledo Vásquez is a jurist, academic, and member of the UN CEDAW Committee, with extensive experience in women’s human rights and gender-based violence.
Anny Ocoró Loango is an Afro-descendant sociologist and researcher specializing in the intersection of gender and race in higher education in Latin America.
Ana Lucía Ramazzini Morales is a feminist sociologist and researcher at FLACSO Guatemala, focused on feminist theory, decolonial critique, and academic freedom in Central America.
🎧 Episode 1
Gender and Academic Freedom
Academic freedom is a fundamental condition for democracy. In this episode, we explore its challenges through an intersectional perspective.
▶ Episode Transcript – available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
References for this episode
Project – CAFA and CLACSO Fellowship: Academic freedom and struggles against structural inequalities from an intersectional perspective: The role of Afro-Latin American researchers’ associations –
Project – CAFA and CLACSO Fellowship: Critical thinkers and the crises of academic freedom in Chiapas and Central America (1910–2024)
Credits
Executive coordination, concept development, hosting, and moderation: Camilla Croso.
Editorial coordination: thais iervolino.
Production: María Cianci Bastidas.
Music and sound design: Anónima Arte y Comunicación.
Illustration: Catarina Bessel.
