QISA Statement regarding transphobic, anti-Semitic, and anti-feminist remarks at the Institute
Statement regarding transphobic, antisemitic and anti-feminist remarks at the Institute
All of us from QISA were disheartened and disappointed after a number of transphobic, antifeminist, and antisemitic comments were discovered on a prompt board created by Student Services.
During summer break, someone assumed to be a member of the IHEID community responded on a prompt board created by the Students Services with a poorly-articulated argument regarding feminism, which included a number of transphobic, antifeminist, and antisemitic rhetoric. The remarks were promptly erased by Student Services.
The prompt stated: “What would you say to someone who is struggling, or feeling overwhelmed right now?”
The comments consisted of a little over 18 sentences laying out an argument supposedly aimed at the IHEID community. Many of the comments included vulgar remarks such as “feminism=nazism”, “saying ‘all men’ is absolutely the same as saying ‘all black [people]’ or ‘all jews’,” and “if gender is a social construct, why are you taking hormones?”
As of today, the IHEID administration has failed to acknowledge this incident and denounce the transphobic, machista, and antisemetic rhetoric found on Institute property. Therefore, the Queer International Student Assembly has unanimously decided to fill this gap in moral leadership to ensure incidents of hate on our campus continue to be called out, named, and denounced.
QISA calls on GISA, all Student Initiatives and students, as well as the Director and Director of Studies of the Graduate Institute, all Departments and Research Centres, and all faculty and staff to follow suit.
QISA’s Response to the Hate Incident
It goes without saying that the points made in the text cannot be tolerated in any academic environment. The text was discriminatory and hurtful, and the argument relied on groundless claims and gross simplifications of articulated political ideas and movements to mere slogans.
Besides the trivial and dogmatic definitions of discourse, communism and ‘true’ democracy, it is relevant to highlight that ‘modern feminism’ constitutes a diverse collection of political theories and movements broadly advocating for the liberation from and abolition of patriarchal systems that sustain gender-based violence and disparities. Likewise, the slogan ‘all men’ might refer to highly different conceptualisations and goals, but, broadly, it points out to the practice of calling out (not excluding, let alone committing violence against) every individual and group that contributes to and benefits from systems of gendered oppression. Therefore, “all men” are being called out for, at the very least, benefiting from the violence perpetrated by patriarchal systems.
On the contrary, historically, nazism advocated for white supremacy and sought to (and still does seek to) achieve this goal by enacting and promoting the genocide of all Jewish communities. Often depending on the context, nazis and other fascist movements around the world also target other minority groups on the basis of race, ability, sexuality, gender, and religion. Clearly, nazism does not call for the critical examination of gendered systems that perpetuate violence and inequality or their dismantlement.
We condemn the use of an initiative thought to fight isolation in our community for exclusionary purposes, as well as the commenter’s cowardly approach to dialogue that avoids any accountability for disrespectful and harmful statements. It is clear that, especially in case this came from Institute’s employees, sanctions would be recommended. However, we do not call for surveillance nor retribution. On the contrary, we demand concrete actions at all levels of our community to recognize sources of internal disagreements and then develop respectful methods of mediation and resolution to prevent instances such as this.
QISA’s Demands
We demand the Academic and Administrative Leadership, as well as all staff of the Graduate Institute, to commit to both formal and substantive measures signalling the will to make our community inclusive and respectful. In particular, we call the Director, the Director of Studies and all the relevant entities of the Administration of the Graduate Institute to:
Accelerate their efforts to meet students’ demands to enhance the inclusion of all members of our community, also by:
Extending the number of gender-neutral bathrooms;
Erasing gendered titles from official documents and communications and from the graduation ceremonies;
Mainstreaming the use of inclusive language in written communications, including adding pronouns in email signatures;
Taking concrete action to make our physical and virtual spaces accessible to everyone (e.g. fixing or removing architectural barriers represented by doors, which should be replaced with automatic ones, and unavoidable steps, mainstreaming the use of captions, adding indoor and outdoor seating and resting areas as appropriate and necessary, addressing affordability and convenience of the cafeteria to all students, etc.);
Furthering the availability of psychological support and other services for people in need;
Implementing routine and mandatory diversity and inclusion trainings for all students, staff, and faculty members to appropriately foster a safe and inclusive environment at the Institute, including but not limited to: discussions on consent, racism and microaggressions, sexual harassment and sexism, religious discrimination, homophobia and genderphobia, and ableism.
Substantively support the efforts of the Student Services team and of other members of our community to address the specific needs in terms of psychological support of and listening to those in our community who deal with systemic oppression everyday.
Make the signature of the Student Code of Conduct and the consent workshop compulsory for all students, to complement them with relevant other workshops to further inclusion, such as on the use of pronouns or on avoiding and dealing with microaggressions, and to work on better standards to deal with power imbalances between teaching staff and students.
Make Antenne-H more visible, accessible and effective, both as the first point of contact in case of harassment and as a mechanism to address it, not only for instances that include exclusively students.
Take the lead with students in celebrating and commemorating important struggles for inclusion, for instance by increasing communication and actions in our community for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 27th of January, the International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the 21st of March, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia on the 17th of May, the Women’s Strike on the 14th of June, Pride Month, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence agains Women on the 25th of November and many other dates and events that we keep failing to observe at the Graduate Institute.
We demand a proactive approach from faculty to foster inclusion and mutual understanding in both the substance and the form of their classes. Specifically, we call all faculty to commit to:
Concrete efforts to bring diverse perspectives to their teaching, including different theoretical and practical approaches to their subjects, and to mainstream authors and debates discussing the role played by intersecting systems of oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, class, nationality, ability, etc.
Mainstreaming the use of pronouns in the class, by suggesting to students who feel comfortable with it to share their pronouns when introducing themselves and, most importantly, by devoting their best efforts not to use gendered titles nor misgender students.
Being reflexive on how the structure of their class (both formally in terms of the weight given to participation and practically in terms of the dynamic of class discussions) perpetuates asymmetries in whose voice gets to be heard that exist in society.
We demand the promotion of discussion and dialogue not as a competitive exercise but as a space of empathy and comprehension through sharing experiences and reflecting on one’s own biases and worldviews.
To this purpose, we call all nodes of power in the Academic and Administrative Leadership of the Graduate Institute to commit to increase transparency of decision-making and students’ participation in deliberative processes in order to spread a sense of ownership of the educational process and prevent the formation of pockets of resistance against progressive change.
Similarly, we demand the respect and active inclusion of students’ collective voice, through the representative body of GISA and other internal advocacy networks, in order to recognise and support the importance of students’ spaces of discussion for negotiating diverging positions and finding common grounds.
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