THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE: Academics facing online violence

Academic research is currently undergoing a wave of contestation, ranging from violent attacks and life-threatening situations to public undermining of research and online threats and violence. Hostile behaviors may be perpetrated by a variety of actors, including ordinary people and state institutions, targeting scholars across diverse fields and disciplines such as climate change, vaccination, gender studies, colonialism, and Islam studies. Recent research shows that female scholars, sexual and racialized minorities, and precarious researchers are the most likely targets of online attacks. This contribution presents the results of a research project on academics facing online violence, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with academics who have been harassed online. We analyze scholars’ experiences and coping strategies, the support they received (or did not receive) from their institutions, and the solidarity and reflective practices stemming from their experiences. By creating prototypes from the interviews, we illustrate diverse experiences and coping mechanisms. These prototypes help to highlight the different stories of online violence, opening their challenges to discussion and providing a comprehensive understanding of this pressing issue. From this perspective, we explore the ambivalences of academics’ public engagement, the public role of universities, and, more broadly, the impact of the current attacks on academic knowledge.