News
Investigates the extent of threats Researchers and teaching staff at the university are in a vulnerable position. For some, threats and harassment are part of everyday life. But the full extent of the problem has thus far not been known. Now David Brax, Senior Advisor at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, intends to find out what the situation is like at the University of Gothenburg. Text: Lotta Engelbrektson Photo: Johan Wingborg Collage: Anders Eurén
10
GUJOURNAL MAY 2021
THE DEGREE AND NATURE of harassment of researchers and teaching staff vary. It can be anything from nasty attacks on social media to actual death threats. David Brax has personally experienced being subjected to threats. A couple of years ago, he found a dummy bomb outside the door of his workplace. – We do not know what message they were trying to send, as there was no message and the investigation was closed, he says.
The debate flares up at regular intervals, especially when something specific has happened. Most recently when Professor Jonas Ludvigsson from Örebro announced that he was leaving COVID research after receiving threats and being subjected to threats and attacks online. But the question is whether these individual events are exceptions? Or if there are researchers who are regularly subjected to harassment?
