April 2025
As the peak body representing scholars, students, and practitioners working in Women’s and Gender Studies across Australia, we are committed to advancing feminist and intersectional scholarship, gender justice, and academic freedom. Our work spans research advocacy, policy engagement, and community-building. We fight for equity, diversity, and inclusion in all areas of knowledge-making. Within this context, we caution that Australia is not immune to politically motivated attacks on initiatives and policies designed to foster and promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in our institutions.
We are deeply concerned about the impact of these movements on our members, people whose lives and research are shaped by intersecting experiences of race, gender, class, disability and sexuality. The recent executive orders by President Trump, aimed at removing protections for marginalised communities and banning DEI-related research, are more than political theatre. They will result in real harm including more gender-based and racially motivated violence, fewer protections, and silenced scholarship.
Just days after the orders were issued, the Professional Society for Microbiologists removed research by Black, women, and LGBTQIA+ scientists from its website – to comply with the new directives. This is the reality of academic censorship.
Closer to home, we’re seeing similar patterns. Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, despite securing a prestigious ARC grant, has had her research on Arab/Muslim Australian social movements placed under investigation. Journalist Antoinette Lattouf was dismissed from the ABC in December 2023. Both cases have drawn widespread condemnation as politically and racially motivated. Countless other academics have faced career risks simply for attending events, signing petitions, or posting online.
Australia is not protected from this wave. Our universities and cultural institutions are increasingly vulnerable to political interference and reputational risk management that overrides justice, truth, and scholarship. Last month, the U.S. called on some of Australia’s Group of Eight universities to declare whether they comply with the Trump administration’s two-gender policy, framing it as a measure to ‘protect women’ and defend against ‘gender ideology.’ We are in complete opposition with this policy and view this request as a form of political interference in academic and research freedoms. Such a request undermines the autonomy of Australian institutions and seeks to impose an ideological agenda. We call upon both the Australian Government and the Group of Eight universities to challenge this request and uphold their independence, ensuring that academic integrity and the diversity of thought in research are preserved.
This doesn’t mean DEI in Australia is beyond critique. Many marginalised academics have spoken out about being harmed by institutions claiming to be “inclusive.” Too often, DEI has lacked the safety, depth, and literacy needed to bring about meaningful change. Instead, it’s been used to tick boxes, sanitise dissent, and exploit marginalised labour under the guise of equity. That, too, is a form of suppression.
But replacing DEI with silence, or banning it without critically informed alternatives, is not the answer. Fundamentalist thinking that seeks to eliminate these conversations entirely, is dangerous. The U.S. defunding of DEI offers a warning. It shows how quickly academic freedom can be eroded when politics, fear, and performative inclusion take precedence over real protections.
We must remember what’s at stake. Women’s and Gender Studies has delivered enormous gains — economically, socially, and culturally. It has helped shape public policy, improved workplace equity, informed legal reform, and supported community resilience. Feminist research has saved lives. Now is not the time to retreat; it is instead time to defend and expand this work.
We advocate for academic freedom including freedom of speech that is used to empower, visibilise, and expand minoritised knowledges and systems. A freedom that is never a cover for hate. AWGSA holds firmly to the principle of ‘first, do no harm.’ Academic freedom is not a free pass for racism, transphobia, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of harm. Debate should not exist at the expense of dignity. Free speech should not be weaponised against those already fighting to be heard and valued.
We call on academic and research institutions to uphold their independence as places of critical inquiry. We call on the Education Minister to protect the autonomy of the Australian Research Council and we urge the broader community, across government, education, and civil society to stand with us in resisting academic suppression in all its forms. We urge Minister Jason Clare to publicly recommit to preventing political interference, thereby safeguarding the ARC’s independence and the integrity of its peer-review process. We call on our members to contact Minister Clare to express concern and to affirm scholars should be afforded freedom of speech (contact: minister.clare@education.gov.au).
We stand together in policy, practice, and research. These are not abstract ideals. Academic freedom, intellectual safety, and intersectional justice are the foundations of ethical scholarship.
The AWGSA Committee takes this seriously. We believe it is our shared responsibility to dismantle systemic oppression and amplify the voices of women, transgender and gender non-conforming people: loudly, unapologetically, and with purpose.
Signed,
The Australian Women’s and Gender Studies Association Executive.
Contact: President, Dr Sarah Casey (awgsa.submissions@gmail.com)
Cc. Email sent to Minister Jason Clare, the ARC, and Universities Australia.
