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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

#MeToo furthered the debates about sexual harassment in academia in different contexts and locations. In Portugal, two moments drove the media debates around sexual harassment in higher education. Specifically, the allegations that emerged at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL) in 2022, and the case related to the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra in 2023. This study aimed to investigate the media coverage of these cases and their respective contributions to the national debate on sexual harassment in academia. We analysed the opinion articles published online between April 2022 and June 2023 in five Portuguese newspapers, Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias, Público, Expresso, Observador, and Correio da Manhã, conducting a comparative analysis of the two cases. Sexual harassment was broadly discussed as an endemic reality, exacerbated by the precariousness and gendered hierarchical structures of academia. At the same time, there was a tendency to personalize the debate, by focusing on Boaventura Sousa Santos, CES’s emeritus director. This served as a basis for the instrumentalization of sexual violence as a form of political attack against the left, thus weakening the potential of the debates about sexual and moral harassment in academia.

Details

Title
Sexual Harassment in Academia: Analysis of Opinion Articles in the Portuguese Press
Author
Faustino, Maria João 1 ; Ventura, Isabel 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Santos, Maria Helena 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Garraio Júlia 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cerqueira, Carla 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Colégio de S. Jerónimo, Apartado 3087, 3000-995 Coimbra, Portugal; [email protected] 
 CEMRI/Uab, Palácio Ceia, Rua da Escola Politécnica, 147, 1269-001 Lisboa, Portugal; [email protected] 
 Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (Iscte-IUL), CIS-Iscte, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal; [email protected] 
 CICANT, Lusófona University, Rua Augusto Rosa 24, 4000-098 Porto, Portugal; [email protected] 
First page
60
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
26735172
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3223913913
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.