We are announcing the International Conference „Beyond Fear and Silence: Universities against Violence“ which will be held on May 6-7, 2022, at the Rectorate of the University of Sarajevo. This is the inaugural conference of the University and Gender Mainstreaming Project (UNIGEM) that gathers eighteen universities from the Balkans region and brings together regional and international scholars researching gender-related issues in the field of higher education.

During the two conference days, over 30 papers by authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia will be presented, and the topics to be discussed are the following: contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches to gender-based and sexual violence, linguistic approaches to gender based violence, language and gender, sociological approaches to power and gender in academia, education of teachers and students on gender-based violence, intersectional approach to equality in education: persons with disabilities, intersectional approach to equality in education: ethnic, gender and sexual minorities, mental health and gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemics, online harassment and cyber-bullying in higher-education, intersectional approach to mental health, gender and violence, gender discrimination in career development: „leaky pipelines“ in different academic disciplines, organizational culture for gender equality: obstacles, challenges and opportunities, approaches to ending sexual misconduct at universities etc. During the conference, special presentations will have four keynote speakers: Biljana Kašić (full professor, feminist and postcolonial theorist from Zagreb), Anna Bull (Department of Education, University of York, UK), Kirsten Campbell (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK) and Ana Belen Amil (Gender Equality Officer, CEU, Wien, Austria).

The aim of the conference is to develop and encourage scholarship committed to the politics of gender equality that aims to end gender-based violence in academia, focusing on the Balkans region and comparative examples internationally. The TPO Foundation and the University of Sarajevo (UNSA) are the organizers of the conference.

The University and Gender Mainstreaming (UNIGEM) Project is supported by the UK Government.