(Un)Silencing Academia in Times of Epistemic Conflicts: Navigating Online Violence

This volume tackles the pressing issue of online violence against academics, considering the diverse forms that cyberbullying and harassment can take, as well as their likely targets. Offering both theorisations of the phenomenon as well as a series of empirical case studies, it maps out possible countermeasures for creating a more resilient academic environment. The collection not only identifies the types of attacks and likely targets but also offers practical, evidence-based countermeasures to mitigate online violence. It fills a crucial gap in scholarship by exploring the intersections of online violence, gender, and minority experiences within the academic realm. Its unique contribution lies in its synthesis of empirical research, personal narratives, and practical recommendations, providing readers with a holistic understanding of the issue and moving beyond mere documentation to actively engaging with the pressing question of how academia can foster a more inclusive and resilient environment. It will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in the sociology of work, scholarly careers, the challenges facing social researchers and issues of academic freedom.

Table of Contents:
1.Un-silencing Academia. A multidimensional perspective on online attacks on academics. Part 1. Theoretical background. 2.Foreword – (Un)silencing Academia Part One. 3.The Social Presence of Academics on Social Media Platforms: A Specific Form of Public Engagement. 4.Transformations of Higher Education: Precarisation, Entrepreneurization, Subjectivation, and Exploitation of Anxiety in Neoliberal Academia. 5.Beyond Visibility: Online Academic Harassment and the Politics of Socio-Technical Harm. Part 2. Case studies. 6.Foreword – (Un)silencing Academia Part Two. 7.The politics of science: Academics facing online violence. 8.Ethics of an unlocked closet: difficult fields and the LGBTIQ+ researchers’ dilemma on transparency. 9.Performing citizenship through digital media: exploring online harassment of academics with a gender perspective. 10.Threats to academic freedom online and offline in France – culture wars, identity politics and the Islamo-gauchisme controversy. Part 3. Institutions, Conclusions, Suggestions. 11.Foreword – (Un)silencing Academia Part Three. 12.Ethical challenges in online research on the far-right continuum. 13.The Rise of Online Harm: Individual, Community and Institutional Strategies to Protect Researchers. 14.Un-silencing as Resistance: Conceptualizing Online Attacks on Academics as Online Violence.

About the Author :
Alberta Giorgi is Associate professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communication Processes at the University of Bergamo, and associate researcher of the Center for Social Studies (CES, Coimbra). Her work explores discursive boundaries and classifications, particularly at the intersection of politics, gender, religion, and science. She has recently co-edited with H. Eslen-Ziya Populism and Science in Europe (2022) and with J. Garraio and T. Toldy Religion, Gender and Populism in the Mediterranean (Routledge 2023). Hande Eslen-Ziya is Professor of Sociology at the University of Stavanger and Honorary Research Associate at the Gender Justice, Health and Human Development, Durban University of Technology. Her research focuses on gender and politics, digital activism, anti-gender movements, and online violence targeting academics. She has published widely on masculinities, feminist activism, and digital cultures, including the co-edited volumes The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication (2019) and Politics and Gender Identity in Turkey: Centralised Islam for Socio-Economic Control (Routledge, 2018).