Censored: Academic blocked from publishing ‘gender wars’ research

An academic studying the censorship of social scientists at British universities because of their views on transgender issues has had her own research confiscated and been barred from publishing the findings by her university.

Dr Laura Favaro had been invited by City, University of London to conduct the first-of-its-kind study, which received funding from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the British Academy.

The postdoctoral researcher has now brought an employment tribunal claim for harassment, victimisation and whistleblowing detriment against the university.

‘Culture of discrimination’

During the research, scholars told her that they experienced threats of violence, hostility from colleagues and feared that their careers would not survive the backlash if they spoke out against transgender ideology.

In an article published in the Times Higher Education Favaro said “a culture of discrimination, silencing and fear has taken hold across universities in England, and many countries beyond.”

Following it, she was told that the study had “become an institutionally sensitive issue” and that the University considered her data to be dangerous and is “frightened of making it public”.

No ethical breach

Despite an investigation by City which found “no evidence” of a breach of ethics criteria, she was allegedly locked out of her email account and told to hand over her data and delete all copies.

Last month, she was made redundant and left unable to publish her work or deposit it in the UK Data Archive and fears her career is now in ruins.

She says her experience at City has left her ‘exhausted’ and ‘traumatised’.

“I want my research data back. I want to make the anonymised survey accessible to other researchers by depositing in the UK Data Archive as per my commitment to the funder and participants, and I want to publish findings.”

Unpublished

She produced a summary report on her findings for the EHRC that still has not been published.

A spokesman for the EHRC said: “We agreed to publish the summary report provided to us by Dr Favaro once her final report was published, as this would enable us to link, as appropriate, to her wider findings.

“Due to legal proceedings it would be inappropriate to comment further.”