Your Right to Safety: Navigating Power and Consent in Academia

To mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we hosted an open discussion at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University titled Your Right to Safety: Understanding Power, Consent, and Professional Boundaries. Students and early-career researchers gathered to hear from Dr. Anna Bull (University of York; The 1752 Group), sociologist and a leading expert on systemic change in higher education. 

After an introduction by Anna Bull, the event featured an open, honest dialogue—both in-person and via Slido—about the “grey areas” where boundaries become blurred. We explored why it can feel so difficult to say “no” and how to recognize when a professional boundary is being tested and why is that different in various fields or level of expertise.

“Gender-based violence is happening everywhere in the world, but certain environments or certain factors in those environments are making it more likely to happen, and a lot of these factors are present in academia,” stated Dr Bull in her opening speech.

“Institutions have to take responsibility for what has been reported to them. Quite often I hear from the reporting parties, students or stuff that have been targeted: I just wanted to talk to somebody, to pass over the responsibility,” described Dr Bull the need of institutions being more reliable ally in dealing with problematic endeavour.

While the challenge is significant, the message of the day was one of hope. Anna Bull reminded us that (student) activism is a powerful movement that forces institutions to move past passivity and prioritise the safety of their staff and students.

We are profoundly grateful to everyone who joined us. Your presence reinforces the fact that safety in academia is a right, not a privilege.

If you have missed the event, you can watch an interview with Anna Bull on our YouTube.

Moving forward, we will keep fighting to build strong allyships and addressing the urgent need to combat gender-based violence. Together, we can shift the power dynamics and ensure a safer, more equitable future for everyone in science and research.

Pictures by Emmalynn Hansen