The workshop was held on May 23, 2025, and was promoted by the CAFA and CLACSO within the framework of the LASA 2025 Conference: Poner el cuerpo en Latinx América. (San Francisco, USA). The workshop addressed the links between gender violence and academic freedom, seeking to understand their impact on women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and the educational community. It also sought to identify ways to promote change. María Estela Rivero Fuentes (Red de Investigación en Centroamérica), María Luisa Rodríguez Peñaranda (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), and Marisa Ruiz Trejo (Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas) gave presentations, which were moderated by Camilla Croso, executive director of CAFA.
Highlights included a collective space for catharsis, presentations on the normalization of violence in academic spaces, and examples of structural and institutional gender violence in the university environment, including epistemic violence (theft of intellectual work, failure to cite academic production, and obstruction of publication). Silence was identified as a survival strategy in the face of threats, persecution, and censorship, as well as the isolation of those who experience gender-based violence. A feminist glossary was provided to encourage a shared commitment to freedom in academia.
Forty people attended, both in person and online. Based on the presentations and discussions, the workshop group identified the following action strategies for change:
1) greater development of gender awareness and of the relationship between gender-based violence and the loss of academic freedom;
2) the importance of networks of solidarity, thought, research, and collective action at the international level, such as CAFA;
– the existence of effective prevention and response protocols;
Reporting and litigation.
– Searching for epistemic justice.
