Är akademisk frihet patriarkal?

Antigenusmobilisering och akademisk frihet i en svensk kontext

Abstract

The article examines a radical right-wing mobilization in which gender studies as well as gender mainstreaming, LGBTQI and anti-racist work in academia are perceived as threats to academic freedom. The study shows how right-wing conservative politicians, with their own gender-conservative policy, not only want to control the discipline of gender studies but hope to exclude it from the university altogether. According to such politicians, academic freedom should not apply to gender researchers. The study also follows an academic organization working for academic freedom and conservative student movements. Women and female students are singled out as a danger to the university as such, while people are mobilized against gender studies, its researchers, teachers and students. The article discusses the meaning of academic freedom, the importance of politicians not weighing into such debates, as well as the importance of academic freedom to include people with different bodies and experiences. The article ultimately argues that ideology does not stand in opposition to objectivity and truth seeking.