Statement from the Department of Gender Studies - October 16, 2018
The CEU Department of Gender Studies strongly condemns the recent annulment of the Gender Studies MA degree accredited in Hungary. In solidarity with Hungarian colleagues, we oppose this latest infringement on academic autonomy in the country.
The Department's MA and PhD programs will nevertheless continue unchanged under their US accreditation. While all two-year MA programs offered by the CEU Department of Gender Studies will, starting in 2019, lose Hungarian accreditation, the programs are also accredited in the US, State of New York. We welcome and encourage applications for 2019-20 in all our MA and PhD programs (see https://gender.ceu.edu/applying).
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On October 12, 2018, without any public statement or explanation, gender studies Master degrees were removed from the list of accredited subjects in Hungary. Students currently enrolled can finish their course of studies as usual and with both Hungarian and US accreditation, but no new students enrolled from September 2019 will be able to earn a Hungarian accredited degree in the field of Gender Studies.
The Department of Gender Studies wishes to express its vehement opposition to such a blatant and forceful imposing of restrictions to academic research and teaching at CEU and elsewhere. We want to express our steadfast solidarity with all our colleagues who are affected by this decision and we call on all our colleagues, institutions, and individuals interested in academic freedom to support us in opposing the unprecedented annulment of a whole academic field in Hungary.
For over twenty years, the CEU Department of Gender Studies has been educating outstanding scholars and professionals to critically analyze the social and cultural construction of gender across many spheres of human life and forms of expression, and to interrogate multiple dimensions of gendered and other intersecting social hierarchies. In the face of political moves such as this recent decision that mischaracterize and question the academic legitimacy of Gender Studies, we stress that the concept of gender, as a fundamental component of the human experience, has proven its importance in and across many areas of academic research and teaching for effectively addressing the complex and fundamental questions of selfhood and social relations, of power and politics, and of the production of knowledge that we all face every day. This history and contribution cannot and must not be erased: the category of gender, and the interdisciplinary domain of gender studies, are an integral part of contemporary scholarship and have profoundly contributed to its intellectual power.
We are heartened by the outpouring of support from academic associations and colleagues around the world who join us in protesting the discontinuation of Gender Studies programs and other threats to academic autonomy in Hungary. Here you can find links to many of those statements dating from the first indications in August 2018 of the government's intentions towards annulling the Gender Studies MA.
https://supportgenderstuideshu.wordpress.com/
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Click HERE to see the Statement of the Department of Gender Studies issued on 25 September, 2018
Click HERE to see CEU Statement of 17 August, 2018: CEU Condemns Attacks against Gender Studies Programs in Hungary