The independent commission created by the Center for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra to investigate complaints of sexual harassment against the sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, who directed the institution between 1978 and 2019, observed “patterns of conduct of abuse of power and harassment by some people who held senior positions in the CES hierarchy.” The testimonies and evidence collected during the 11 months of work of the commission do not allow, however, to clarify the existence of some situations publicly denounced, although their final conclusions highlight their “coherence” and “consistency.” “The testimonies and complaints presented are, for the most part, extensive testimonies, with precise and detailed information, located in space and time, describing details of work meetings, conversations, coexistence situations and others, presenting, in their majority, consistency among themselves and internal coherence”, they point out in the first of the conclusions.
The creation of this commission occurred after the publication of the book Sexual Misconduct in Academia: Informing an Ethics of Care in the University (Sexual misconduct in academia: on an ethic of care in the university), edited by Routledge, where three former researchers at the Center for Social Studies, Lieselotte Viaene, Catarina Laranjeiro and Miye Nadya, denounced an environment of abuse of power and harassment sexual in an institution that was not mentioned, but which was identified as the CES. Likewise, it was concluded that the two people denounced in the text were the founder of the center and internationally renowned sociologist, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, and professor Bruno Sena Martins. The book would later be withdrawn by the publisher, but it also led to the appearance of new testimonies from women who declared themselves victims of the sociologist, such as the Mapuche activist Moira Millán and the Brazilian representative Bella Gonçalves.
Until April 2023, there were eight women among the complainants, but the report presented this Wednesday reveals a much larger universe of victims. The commission received complaints from 32 people –women in 78% of the cases–, of which 48% presented themselves as victims, which would bring the cases to fifteen. Other people reported that they had witnessed bad practices. Doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers are the groups that filed the most complaints.
Likewise, the number of reported cases is surprising. Fourteen people from the CES were denounced by one or more people for different actions and all of them gave statements before the commission. Half of those reported were for cover-up, 21% for negligence and 29% for some type of harassment or abuse, whether moral, sexual or power. The most common complaints described situations of moral harassment (28%), sexual harassment or abuse (27%) and abuse of power (27%).
In a 114-page report, the commission reports that the CES was directed for years by a small circle of power, which made all the decisions, separated or promoted professionals based on arbitrary criteria and permanently crossed the barriers between professional and private life. . Among the situations of sexual harassment, the “eroticization of gestures” of some main researchers towards the students, “excessive proximity and unauthorized body contact”, “wet and delayed kisses”, “lewd glances”, “proposals for intimate relationships” are cited. ” in exchange for academic benefits or incitement to consume alcohol with the intention of obtaining “sexual contact.”
Regarding sexual abuse, non-consensual touching, sexual relations with people in a position of professional inferiority when they were “under the influence of substances and without full conditions to give their consent” were cited. Regarding moral harassment practices, they list, among others, the “systematic and aggressive humiliation and disqualification” of some professors and principal researchers regarding the work produced, contacts with students at “inappropriate hours (sometimes early in the morning) to discuss non-urgent matters at sometimes to satisfy personal whims” or disparaging comments towards clothing.
Those accused denied the accusations in their statement before the commission and attributed them to “political, ideological, personal or academic” reasons, although “a minority confirmed several of the facts, in particular the existence of intimate relationships of a sexual nature between professors/researchers.” and students/researchers and the presence of situations of moral harassment and abuse of power.”
In its conclusions, the commission verified that informal integration activities “generated situations inappropriate to the academic context” and identified situations of vulnerability in students from abroad. The researchers point out that the “pyramid hierarchy” and a culture of informality led to “situations of conflict of interest, harassment and abuse of power.”
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