Representatives of the CAFA Gender Working Group and university professors Amanda Mendonça and María Luisa Penaranda discussed the highlights of the meeting held at the CLACSO Conference in Bogotá and the importance and challenges of fighting for gender equality in academic spaces
On June 12, 2025, within the framework of the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Social Sciences Conference (CLACSO), held in Bogotá, Colombia, the Gender Working Group of the Coalition for Academic Freedom in the Americas (CAFA) promoted the panel “Perspectives on Gender and Academic Freedom from the Americas: Risks, Resistance, and Hope.” More than 50 people were present, including members of the Gender Working Group, researchers, professors, and activists from across the region, to reflect on gender violence as well as strategies for resistance and change. On this occasion, the CAFA read aloud its letter of support for Alexi Amaya, a former UNAL official who was a victim of gender violence and who was part of the panel. Access the letter here.
To learn more about the meeting and the topics discussed, we spoke with two members of the CAFA Gender Working Group who attended the event, Amanda Mendonça, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and María Luisa Peñaranda, professor at the National University of Colombia (UNAL), who highlighted the challenges, voices, and importance of defending academic freedom by combating the asymmetries between women and men working in universities.
According to them, the meeting exceeded attendance expectations and created a space filled with emotion and affection, giving visibility to the voices of women who face this violence in the academic sphere, including Alexi Amaya, who, after years of being harassed by a professor, managed to have him convicted in court.
I believe that the Coalition for Academic Freedom became a refuge, a space of trust and support with this act clearly in favor of the victims at the National University of Colombia,” said María Luisa Peñaranda.
The struggle for gender equality in universities as a fundamental role in guaranteeing academic freedom was also a topic of discussion in the interview.
We are always engaged in intense debate, because not everyone who discusses academic freedom believes that it is appropriate to address the issue from a gender perspective. In our case, we have identified gender as the backbone of this defense of academic freedom. You cannot talk about education that is democratic and guarantees all the principles that academic freedom entails without talking about gender equality and without combating the gender-based violence that exists in universities,” said Amanda Mendonça.
Lee la entrevista completa:
What was the outcome of the meeting?
Amanda Mendonça – Our goal was to take advantage of the presence of researchers and professors, mainly from Latin America, to deepen our debate on initiatives to combat gender violence and harassment in universities. That was our main topic.
We had a very significant surprise because we did not expect so many people to participate. As the CLACSO Conference has a very extensive program, we didn’t think we would be able to attract so many people, but we managed to fill the auditorium.
As for the debate during the meeting, it was very, very nice. There were moments of affection, in which the voices of women who experience gender-based violence and harassment in academic institutions were highlighted, and people were very moved.
María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda – I think it was a great moment for feminism in Colombia and in the region because we had the opportunity to have a privileged audience within the framework of the CLACSO [conference].
It was our meeting, a meeting of the gender group in which very significant women in the feminist struggles in Colombia participated. For example, there was Professor Sara Fernández from the University of Antioquia, Camila Prada from the University of Medellín, who has fought a very important battle, there were students who had already graduated from the federal case, such as María Paul, and there was Alexi Amaya, the administrator who led one of the most important struggles to guarantee the right to a life free of violence at the university. So I consider it to have been a very privileged setting.
[On that occasion], we had a wonderful conversation and then, in the panel that was made public with CLACSO, we were able to connect deeply with the audience about what gender-based violence means and how it affects women’s lives, how it transcends time, how psychological health and loneliness take hold, how the causes are generally not understood, etc.
For me personally, this meeting in Bogotá also meant a lot in terms of support for our struggle from the Coalition for Academic Freedom. On many occasions, we fight these battles with a feeling of abandonment, of loneliness, and even though we embrace each other, we need an institutional framework that also tells us that we are doing the right thing.
I believe that the Coalition for Academic Freedom became a refuge, a space of trust and support with this act clearly in favor of the victims at the National University of Colombia.
What were the highlights of the meeting?
Amanda Mendonça – Some women came forward in the auditorium and presented their experiences, their cases, their own situations. It was very moving and very enriching, and we brought the political debate to the fore.
We have done some very interesting work as a working group, which is this opportunity to share experiences that do not seem to be as common as in neighboring countries. As a Brazilian, it was very surprising for me to meet people who are involved in this debate.
I noticed that countries like Colombia and Argentina are very, very advanced in relation to this debate on gender violence and harassment in universities, and protocols for dealing with it, for example.
After the public event, we had an internal agenda, just for the members of the CAFA Gender WG. For one day, we first held a debate and then a kind of group planning session.
We discussed our presence in universities, a place that is greatly affected by gender issues, with unequal powers and where cases of harassment and violence have been reported.
As for actions to combat sexual and moral harassment of women in universities, I see that among students, although this is very present, we have managed to give more visibility to cases. However, when female professors and researchers suffer this type of violence, this does not happen, for fear that their careers will be affected, that they will be excluded, and that they will not obtain funding for their projects.
We have strongly advocated for the creation and strengthening of protocols in universities as a way for victims to file complaints safely. When this type of procedure does not exist, it becomes more difficult for a female professor who wants to pursue an academic career to file a complaint because she usually ends up isolated, alone, and excluded, receiving various stigmas.
María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda – I would highlight the deep connection that was established with the audience and the speakers, both Liliana and Professor Joana Flores and Alexi Amaya. They gave very profound speeches, but I think Alexia’s in particular had a special connotation because it was also a testimony of what she had experienced when she recounted her case.
By chance, because the stars aligned, we had the opportunity to hold our event at the same time that the Law School was unveiling a mural supposedly for the reparation of victims, which both Alexi Amaya and I had opposed. In Alexia’s case, she wasn’t even invited.
She fought a long battle [to bring a teacher who had harassed her for years to justice] and won it legally. This professor was dismissed and disqualified for 12 years in a second instance decision by the Attorney General’s Office, which was a huge victory after Alexi Amaya had already won a writ of protection before the Constitutional Court, that is, a long road of nine years of litigation in disciplinary, criminal, and constitutional proceedings. [After all that process], the university remained silent and did not invite Alexia to a tribute at the Law School that was supposedly intended for the victims.
In my case, I was invited because I am part of one of the cases they were repairing, and I did not agree with that symbolic reparation because it did not represent me as such.
In this context, the fact that our event at the Conference was simultaneous with the one taking place at the Law School, with the mural that we did not want to participate in, that we did not feel comfortable with, I consider to have been very symbolic, very profound.
It was a beautiful act of significance for Alexia’s case, especially with the words of Camilla [Croso, executive director of the CAFA] that were read and given to her by Camilla, which were also words to recognize her struggle and put herself in her place. So it was very emotional, very meaningful, and very representative of what we were fighting for.
Even when you win, you always lose. Although Alexi Amaya won at every level, as mentioned previously, even in the constitutional court, which is extremely important in feminist struggles in the university sphere, she was dismissed by the current administration, leaving us with an open wound. A feeling of dissatisfaction and pain, because even when you win in court, you lose in everyday life. The time spent on the proceedings, the psychological damage, and then the silence of the university show the enormous institutional gender violence that exists.
During the meeting, among the cases presented, there was one involving Alexi Maya, who was an official at the National University of Colombia…
Amanda Mendonça – Yes, we were surprised because those of us who don’t live in Colombia didn’t know about her before. Her case has been going on for almost ten years.
She no longer works at the university. She was fired because she reported her boss. However, as the university is a very male-dominated environment, he got the support of his colleagues and she was fired. Even so, she did not give up and initiated legal proceedings in the ordinary courts, and he was convicted. The case is very emblematic because it managed to break through the walls of the university.
During the public event, many women stood up and said that they had been through similar situations, and I think that is very, very emblematic. People cried, they were very emotional, and an atmosphere of trust was created in which they could present their cases.
At the conference, there was a tribute to the victims of harassment. However, that does not give them back their jobs or compensate them for the suffering they have endured over all these years. We talked a lot about the importance of material reparations, beyond symbolic ones.
María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda – This is a very emblematic case because it is a very unequal struggle. It is a very asymmetrical struggle between a single mother with three children to support, who is an administrative contractor, and a professor, Guillermo Castro, who had recently arrived from Germany, where he did his doctorate.
I accompanied her at the beginning of her process and throughout the entire time. When we were talking about this process, we never imagined how complex, difficult, and hard it was going to be.
Even if you win, you always lose. Although Alexi Amaya won in all instances, as mentioned previously, even in the constitutional court, which is extremely important in feminist struggles in the university sphere, she was dismissed by the current administration, and that left us with an open wound. A feeling of dissatisfaction and pain, because even if you win in court, you lose in everyday life. The time spent on the proceedings, the psychological damage, and then the silence of the university show the enormous institutional gender violence.
I believe that holding this event meant that, at the university itself, we made a public statement in defense of women’s rights and showed that we are not willing to give in, that we are continuing our work, and that ultimately, sooner or later, reason is on our side, and so is justice.
Academic freedom stems from a democratic education. This is only possible if we ensure that all bodies, identities, and sexualities can be present and active. If bodies, identities, and sexualities are excluded from these spaces, we are not guaranteeing any of these principles.
Why is it so important to address gender issues in the debate on academic freedom?
Amanda Mendonça – That is not a consensus. We are always in intense dispute, because not everyone who discusses academic freedom believes that it is appropriate to approach the debate from this perspective, or to include the gender perspective.
In our case, we have identified gender as the backbone of this defense of academic freedom. You cannot talk about education that is democratic and guarantees all the principles that academic freedom entails without talking about gender equality and without combating the gender violence that exists in universities. To talk about academic freedom is to talk about the principles we want to guarantee the freedom to teach, research, and work on all topics, without any kind of prohibition.
Academic freedom starts with a democratic education. This is only possible if we talk about all bodies, identities, and sexualities being able to be present and active. If bodies, identities, and sexualities are excluded from these spaces, we are not guaranteeing any of these principles.
To guarantee academic freedom, we must think about autonomy in all everyday issues, and this can be seen on a daily basis, both in the lower presence of women and LGBTQIAP+ people in positions of power at the university, and in the topics that are researched and the political and financial investments that are allocated to those topics and that audience.
María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda – It is very important to talk about how these asymmetries between women and men in academia translate into epistemic violence, such as the lack of recognition of women’s work and contribution to knowledge, the difficulties of the glass ceiling, the difficulties in advancing and obtaining prominent positions even though we produce much more than our colleagues, the fact that violence is directed against us in more direct ways, such as physical violence, sexual harassment, and then the institutional violence that covers it up, which, by denying that this is happening, violates the women who report it… All of this is intended to show how academic freedom and the guarantees of academic freedom are deeply affected by gender and by the inequalities produced by our Latin American societies.
Further reading:
Article – Academic freedom, gender, and regional integration: foundations for a democratic university – Written by Camilla Croso, executive director of CLAA, and Amanda Mendonça, professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), the article offers a critical analysis of the challenges and possibilities for the democratization of higher education in Latin America, based on the articulation between three interconnected fronts: the growing threat to academic freedom in contexts of advancing neoconservatism, gender inequalities and violence in universities, and the potential of regional integration in the production and circulation of knowledge and in confronting the conservative scenario. The article is published in Portuguese.