DiGeSt - Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies

Scholars of gender and race have since long engaged with academic freedom because of the nature of their work that often destabilized and questioned disciplinary boundaries and orthodoxies. Since the 1990s, critical scholarly work has been challenged by conservative critics: ‘political correctness’, multiculturalism and postmodern theory were all questioned as irreconcilable with academic truth-seeking (Scott 2018). Over the last decade, we witnessed a surge of conservative and right-wing challenges to critical theory. From Orban’s withdrawing accreditation of gender studies programmes, to Trump’s anti-DEI policies and the wave of global academic censorship and repression since the genocidal violence in Gaza, we witnessed an increase in attempts to delegitimize or censor critical scholarship.

We invite Roundtable contributions, academic non- peer reviewed short essays, that reflect on the current challenges for academic freedom in the fields of gender and diversity - critical race and ethnicity - studies. How can historical formulations of academic freedom warrant inclusive democratic values in academic work? Which challenges today are unprecedented? How does the neoliberal university and the increasing collaboration with military and defence relate to academic freedom? How do notions of ‘ideological diversity’ and ‘epistemic diversity’ relate to academic freedom? We welcome reflections on these or other related questions.

Deadline abstracts: March 2nd 2026
Full essays (max. 3500 words): May 10th 2026 

Send your abstract to: digest@ugent.be