Greetings allies and members. 

This issue of our newsletter includes a selection of the latest research, media and activities related to the issue of academic bullying and harassment. As the articles below demonstrate,  the depth and nuance of research and inquiry into the topic of workplace abuse continues to develop. We are also very encouraged by the importance given to these topics by important publications and organizations. As a reminder, the annual APM conference will take place on June 15 in Bern, Switzerland (see details below). We hope to see some of you there!

As always, stay tuned for more information on our latest activities and thank you for your interest in and support for Academic Parity. Thank you to those of you who have kindly sent relevant research and materials our way! 

In the Research and Literature

• Power (ab)use in academia: strings of dependencies and shadow resistance (Bristol University Press, April 2026). In this piece, Nicole Ovesen, Angelica Simonsson and Vilana Pilinkaitė Sotirovič explore the expressions of power and structures of inequality that enable gender-based violence within academia as well as how such abuse is resisted. The study found that low levels of recognition and reporting are related to the invisible and hidden nature of power abuses, as well as the specific context of academia which is characterized by hierarchies and dependencies. In addition to creating the conditions for control and exploitation, relations of dependency also shape the subtle and informal strategies of resistance that can be used in the pursuit of justice, which the authors conceptualize as “shadow resistance”.
• 840,000 deaths a year linked to psychosocial risks at work (International Labour Organization, April 2026). This piece summarizes the findings of a new ILO report that found that psychosocial risk factors—including long working hours, job insecurity, high demands with low control, and workplace bullying and harassment–are linked to 840,000 deaths a year and nearly 45 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually, reflecting years of healthy life lost due to illness, disability, or premature death, and are estimated to result in economic losses equivalent to 1.37 per cent of global GDP each year.
• Does love in the ivory tower fix the leaky pipeline? (PLoS One, March 2026). This study of Swiss academia by Antonia Velicu, Manon Fauvelais, Julia Jerke, Heiko Rauhut and Bruno Lemaitre explores whether “homogamy”—described as the forming of heterosexual relationships between individuals with the same profession—influences academic careers, more specifically the problem of women’s underrepresentation in advanced academic roles. The study found that  homogamy does have a positive impact on partnership dynamics and career support but is not without challenges and limitations.
• Who is experiencing faculty/staff–student sexual misconduct in UK higher education? (Journal of Gender-Based Violence, February 2026). This study by Anna Bull and Alexander Bradley responds to the dearth of peer-reviewed research on sexual harassment perpetrated by staff/faculty towards university students in the UK and Ireland. Using hurdle models to reveal not only who experiences faculty/staff sexual misconduct, but also which groups experience more incidents, their study found that while women were the only group more likely to experience sexual misconduct in general, when examining amount of misconduct experienced, women, non-binary students, Asian students, gay/lesbian and bisexual students, first-in-family, and disabled students were all more likely to experience more incidents.
• Don’t rock the boat! Do men prefer leaders who support the status quo? (British Journal of Social Psychology, February 2026). This research by Belle Derks, Francesca Manzi, Colette van Laar and Naomi Ellemers examines how both men and women contribute to the preservation or disruption of gender inequality in masculine organizational contexts. Results revealed that although men favored female over male candidates, they consistently preferred women who reinforced the status quo over those who advocated equality. By contrast, male candidates who supported the status quo were penalized, and female evaluators showed no such preferences.

In the News and Media

• Firms with women in top roles more likely to dismiss abusive men, study finds (The Guardian, March 2026) In this piece, Alexandra Topping reveals the results of a recent study revealing among other things that female-managed organisations (those with a higher than average number of women in high-earning positions) were “significantly more likely to dismiss perpetrators”, while male-managed ones were more likely to see the victim of abuse leave the company.
• The boys’ club: How Epstein’s influence shaped the exclusion of women in STEM (The 19th, February 2026). In this article, Jessica Kutz examines the recent release of exchanges between Jeffrey Epstein and prominent scientists both in terms of how they reveal the ways sexism and misogyny still hold women back, especially in the sciences and how Epstein used his power and money in ways that kept women out of places where they might succeed. 
• How the US Department of Education has turned civil rights enforcement into a discriminatory tool (Brookings, February 2026). In this piece, Rachel M. Perera summarizes how the Trump administration has transformed OCR into a discriminatory doppelganger of the civil rights agency it once was by refocusing the agency’s limited resources almost exclusively on three issues: Sex-based discrimination rooted in the provision or protection of transgender students’ rights, so-called reverse racial (or ethnic) discrimination, and discrimination against Jewish students.

This and That 

• The following link provides information about how the NIH handles complaints of harassment, discrimination, or other forms of inappropriate conduct that can result in a hostile work environment.
• This year’s APM conference, STEM the Bullying: The European Dialogue, will take place in Bern Switzerland on Monday, June 15, 2026. See here for more details.

Voices from the Community

Voices from the Community section is a space where members of our community share their stories and experiences of academic bullying. Please let us know if you have an experience you would like to share by contacting our newsletter editor at avogelaar@paritymovement.org. Contributions are anonymized but not fact-checked and should be 300 words or less.

“I once believed talent plus hard work guaranteed success—a formula that held from my rural schooling to graduate studies in the U.S. But science is not pure; it carries human flaws. My first three years of doctoral work went well: three co-authored top‑tier papers, a major DOE grant, and passing qualifying exams. Then my fourth year hit a normal research snag. Instead of patience, my supervisor dismissed me from the program, handing me a master’s degree and the door. That shattered my trust in effort leading to reward.

After working in the U.S. for a year, I returned to China for a new position. Though the change lifted my mood, the past accumulated into physical and mental distress—reliving the unfair treatment, lost time and opportunities, and questioning my career. I was diagnosed with mild anxiety disorder and needed over a year of medical care to recover.

School and family had built a greenhouse around me; I overestimated my resilience. Once recovered, I chose to find another opportunity in scientific research—because I still love science and believe being a conscientious scientist benefits both society and oneself.

Now I live differently. Health comes first. I’ve seen mental health crises in young researchers, including two brilliant peers around me who passed away. Academic bullying is not unique to the U.S.—it is quite common in China and some other countries as well. Without proper control, it will keep harming the victims, especially for young researchers at a relatively weak position. Graduate schools are  essentially a workplace and thus more attention must be paid to restrict supervisors’ power abuses and the labor relations between PIs and students. The rights of both students and PIs should be protected. Anyone who has suffered from academic bullying should bravely speak up and fight for their right to make academia a better place for every scholar. Lastly, no matter how bad the situation would be, exiting is always an option. Find a new life and stay away from toxic people and environments.”

 

Until the next issue, wishing you well,

Dr. Alison E. Vogelaar
Newsletter Editor

The Academic Parity Movement

Twitter; Instagram; LinkedIn