What is Let’s Talk, Let’s Act: Addressing Discrimination in Danish Higher Education?

The webinar series Let’s Talk, Let’s Act: Addressing Discrimination in Danish Higher Education   was organized within the EU GENDERACTIONplus project and headed by the Gender & Equality Team at The University of Southern Denmark (SDU), as part of the National Impact Plan with the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science (UFM).

The webinar series includes five thematic webinars, each covering an important perspective on discrimination in higher education in Denmark. The series follows up on the recent #metoo movement in Denmark, and specifically VIVE’s 2024 report, “Sexisme og karriereforløb på danske universiteter,” [Sexism and carrier progression at Danish universities] which was commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science (UFM) and aimed to capture early career researchers’ experiences of sexism and discrimination.

Each webinar is moderated by Dr. Bontu Guschke, who is herself a researcher and facilitator in anti-discrimination work, and Molly Occhino, who is a DEI consultant in GET at SDU, part of the GENDERACTIONplus project, and is currently finishing their Ph.D in the social sciences at Roskilde University.

Why is this series important for INSPIRE’s OTU?

The series is an important initiative that highlights the importance of working with an intersectional approach to anti-discrimination work, and at the same time, the series works to understand and specifically address and combat the specific ways that racism and xenophobia, sexism, queerphobia and transphobia, ableism, and other forms of interlocking discrimination manifest. In this way, the series also illustrates and beautifully weaves together the importance of intersectional solidarity and allyship, while also working to understand and address discrimination across identity axes in Europe. With internationally renowned speakers and moderators leading the discussions and who formulate research-grounded approaches for better solidarity and tools for anti-discrimination work, INSPIRE has found great value in amplifying the work done in the webinar series for INSPIREs stakeholders. We believe that these discussions can help to provide tools and frameworks for more inclusive and norm-critical equality work (including IGEPs) in academia, and ultimately, can greatly help to build intersectional, decolonial feminist solidarity and allyship in Europe.

As such, this OTU features the content developed within the webinar series and includes the webinars and the output referred to within the series, as well as the recommendations given to the ministry based on the cumulation of the series.

Target Audience

The webinars original target audience included university leadership, policymakers, research and administrative staff at Danish universities, students, as well as union leaders working with the higher education sector; however, given the richness of the discussions, the series can benefit any people in these positions across Europe, as well as anyone working with IGEP creation and implementation.

Additional Resources

To explore these topics further, we prepared a list of resources that are mentioned throughout the webinar.