Personal Experiences of Online Misogyny and Gender-Based Violence in Academia and University Settings

In recent years, media attention on feminism has grown, coinciding with an increase in technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) targeting feminists in both online and offline spaces. TFGBV includes various forms of online harassment, such as hate speech, threats of violence, and public doxxing, which are increasingly linked to real-world harm. Digital platforms and social media play a significant role in fueling these hate campaigns, disproportionately affecting racialized, gender-diverse, and queer communities.

The Digital Feminist Network (DigFemNet) is conducting a survey to better understand the experiences of researchers, educators, archivists, librarians, and administrators in academia and university settings who encounter TFGBV as a result of their feminist work. The DigFemNet’s work is grounded in an intersectional feminism that seeks to address and dismantle power imbalances, focusing not only on gender but on broader issues of who has power and who is excluded within existing systems of white supremacist heteropatriarchal imperialism. This approach is rooted in Black feminist thought and embraces the voices of queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, disabled, and eco-feminist movements. Together, we acknowledge how different social identities—such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability—intersect to shape people's experiences of privilege and/or oppression.

Are interested in learning more, but prefer to take this survey in French? Veuillez suivre ce lien pour accéder à la version française.

Lead researcher:
Jada Watson, Associate Professor (School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa)
DigFemUO@uOttawa.ca

Research team:
Shana MacDonald, Associate Professor (Communication Arts, University of Waterloo)
Brianna I. Wiens, Assistant Professor (English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo)