Fwd: Request for signatures -The threat to close the MA program in gender studies in Hungary

Dear friends and colleagues,

Could you please forward this request for signatures to any Gender studies
program directors in your faculties? Please get in touch with David
Paternotte [email protected] directly if you want to join their
initiative and sign the letter:

Minister of Education
Hungary

[email protected]

Copy to the embassy of Hungary in xxx and the embassy of xxx in Hungary,
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Dear Minister of Education,

We have been notified about the Hungarian government’s proposed law to
abolish the accredited MA program in gender studies in Hungary. According
to The Hungarian Journal, “the part of the amendment which concerns gender
studies provides no explanation whatsoever. Two universities are concerned:
Hungary’s biggest state-funded university ELTE, and the Central European
University. If the amendment becomes official, it will mean that nobody can
attend gender studies courses in Hungary and get a degree in the subject.”

As directors and professors of gender studies masters and study programmes
in various European states and worldwide, we would like to express our deep
concern and protest this proposal. We also want to show our solidarity with
our Hungarian colleagues. Gender studies are well established as a
scientific discipline and Hungary enjoys an excellent reputation in the
field. This discipline, which is taught in the most prestigious
institutions of higher education in the world, has significantly
contributed to the advancement of science and the improvement of society.
Perspectives from gender studies on questions of human wellbeing, equality,
identity, difference, and diversity today are also recognized within many
other scientific disciplines, from medicine, law, political sciences,
economics, sociology to cultural, literary studies and history.
Furthermore, gender studies embraces a plurality of theoretical
perspectives and methodologies that cannot be reduced to one single
framework or paradigm. Therefore, research, studies and graduates with the
skills and expertise to tackle both global, but also specific local
challenges relating to societal progress, rights and dignity remain
important for future generations. This field is both intellectually and
politically crucial, across Europe and within Hungary.

This measure also sets a dangerous precedent for state intervention in all
other university courses. By denying to faculty and administrators the
academic freedom that is the guarantee of the autonomy of higher education,
the Hungarian government puts itself outside the community of democratic
nations.

We call therefore upon the Minister of Education to refuse this amendment.
We also call upon the European Union, of which Hungary is a member nation,
to condemn this action as a violation of its principles. And we call upon
academic institutions in our own countries to join our protest.

Best regards

NAME, Institution, Name of the Master, country
Chia Longman (Universiteit Gent), Master Gender & Diversity, Flanders,
Belgium
David Paternotte (Université libre de Bruxelles), Master de specialisation
en études de genre, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Belgium



Kinneret Lahad

Ph.D. Senior Lecturer

NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program

Tel-Aviv University, Israel

*The free link to the open access version for A Table for One *

*http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=635870;keyword=lahad
<http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=635870;keyword=lahad>*

*https://162.academia.edu/KinneretLahad
<https://162.academia.edu/KinneretLahad>*

*New Publications*

Lahad, Kinneret  (2017) A Table for One: A Critical Reading of Singlehood,
Gender and Time. Manchester, *Manchester University Press  *
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526116369/

May, Vanessa., Lahad, Kinneret (2018). The involved observer: A Simmelian
analysis of the Boundary Work of Aunthood.*Sociology*,
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038517746051

Taylor, Yvette, and Kinneret Lahad (Eds. 2018) Feeling Academic in the
Neoliberal University. London, Palgrave
http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319642239

Lahad Kinneret, Sabar, Galia; Sabar-Ben Yehoshua, Naama  (2018) Doing and
Displaying Gendered Boundary Work among Blended Families in Israel
*Sociology*, 52 (1): 95-110
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038038516677220

Lahad Kinneret and May, Vanessa (2017) .‏Just one?’ Solo Dining, Gender and
Temporal Belonging in Public Spaces. *Sociological Research Online.  *22(2),
1-11 http://www.socresonline.org.uk/22/2/12.html
Yodovich, Neta and Lahad, Kinneret (2017) I don't think this Woman had
anyone in her Life': Loneliness and Singlehood in Six Feet Under *European
Journal of Women's Studies  *published online first:
http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/MyWvu8nBCnqFvhcwSBY4/full

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