{"id":90542,"date":"2018-10-11T10:32:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T08:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=90542"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:07","slug":"metooacademia-sexual-intimidation-occurs-at-universities-as-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/10\/11\/metooacademia-sexual-intimidation-occurs-at-universities-as-well\/","title":{"rendered":"#MeTooAcademia: \u2018Sexual intimidation occurs at universities, as well\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In #MeTooAcademia: The Learning Curve<\/em>, a theatre troupe acts out scenarios of intimidation and sexual intimidation that took place at Dutch universities. The play, which will be performed at the Erasmus Pavilion on Friday evening, was written at the request of Liesbet van Zoonen, the Dean of the Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities (EGSH).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>

\u201cAn older foreign visiting professor, a big name in his field, says to a female PhD student: \u2018Wow, I think your research is really interesting. Would you like to discuss it with me over dinner some time?\u2019 The PhD student suggests they have lunch instead, but the visiting professor convinces her to have dinner together. In the end, the dinnertime conversation is not about her research at all. Instead the professor says: \u2018I\u2019m so in love with you, and I can tell you are, too.\u2019 The PhD student tells him he is wrong and leaves, only for the man to keep showing up at her office.\u201d<\/p>\n

#MeTooAcademia<\/h2>\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t
\n\t\t\u2018Scientists are supposed to be these cerebral people, but sexual intimidation occurs at universities, as well.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

This anecdote about a visiting professor who kept hassling a female PhD student is one of the stories Van Zoonen collected about Erasmus University. \u201cThe PhD student eventually contacted the people in charge [of the department], and they asked the visiting professor to leave, so this problem was solved properly.\u201d This story, as well as several other stories about people being intimidated at universities, will be re-enacted on Friday evening in a play called #MeTooAcademia: The Learning Curve<\/em>. Afterwards, there will be a debate with the university\u2019s confidential adviser, among other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wondered why, in the debate engendered by #MeToo, we heard stories from the worlds of sports, the arts and business, but hardly ever about the world of science,\u201d Van Zoonen says, explaining how the event came into being. \u201c#MeToo is about the toxic combination of power and sex. Scientists are supposed to be these cerebral people, but sexual intimidation occurs at universities, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Receiving PhD students naked<\/h2>

Van Zoonen hopes #MeTooAcademia will stir up a discussion on intimidation at universities. \u201cUniversities are places where complex power relations exist. Life often revolves around competition and rivalry. PhD students are particularly vulnerable, because they are highly dependent on their PhD supervisors. This being the case, they are not likely to say, \u2018My supervisor is touching me, making stupid jokes or standing just a little too close to me.\u2019\u201d In her capacity as the Dean to the Graduate School, Van Zoonen feels it is her responsibility to ensure that PhD students feel comfortable discussing such subjects. Not so that other people can be pilloried, but to prevent PhD students from bottling up their stories and also to check whether the procedures that are currently in place are actually effective.<\/p>\n

Van Zoonen was not surprised to hear that intimidation occurs at universities. \u201cThere is a hilarious, but also tragic, example out there of a professor who used to work at an academic medical centre somewhere in the Netherlands. He used to receive female PhD students while sitting at his desk naked,\u201d says Van Zoonen. \u201cIn a way, that just makes me laugh. I mean, who in their right mind would do something like that? But what did<\/em> shock me was that he got away with it for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grey zone<\/h2>\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t