{"id":2415,"date":"2019-01-20T19:43:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T00:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/?p=2415"},"modified":"2019-04-03T15:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T19:22:17","slug":"the-hungarian-ban-on-gender-studies-and-its-implications-for-democratic-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/2019\/01\/the-hungarian-ban-on-gender-studies-and-its-implications-for-democratic-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hungarian Ban on Gender Studies and its Implications for Democratic Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On October 12, 2018, the Hungarian government officially removed<\/strong><\/a><\/a>\u00a0Gender Studies Masters and PhD degrees from the list of accredited subjects in the country. The government also issued a decree<\/strong><\/a> rescinding the accreditation and funding for Gender Studies programs at two Hungarian universities, E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University (a state-run school) and Central European University (also known as CEU), two of the top universities in the country. Current students in such programs can complete their degrees<\/strong><\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0but starting in September 2019, new students will not be permitted to pursue such degrees. \u00a0While this move may seem like a limited attack on an academic discipline, it represents an alarming global trend of authoritarian governments targeting academic, feminist, and LGBTQ institutions as part of grander campaigns to dismantle social equality in their countries\u2014a trend that hits closer to home than most Americans may think.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian government did not provide<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>any explanation for its action, although at a news conference in August of 2018, when Prime Minister Viktor Orban\u2019s administration first began discussing the possibility of shutting down Gender Studies programs in the nation, the prime minister\u2019s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said<\/a><\/strong>,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe Hungarian government is of the clear view that people are born either men or women. They lead their lives the way they think best, but beyond this, the Hungarian state does not wish to spend public funds on education in this area.\u201d Hungary\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister, Zsolt Semjen, has said<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0gender studies programs “ha[ve] no business\u00a0in universities” as they represent “an ideology, not a science.”\u00a0The move was widely recognized<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as the first of a series of cultural shifts promised by Prime Minister Orban after he was elected in April of 2018.\u00a0 It embodies a rejection of what Orban\u2019s supporters view<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as a dominance of liberal values in areas like the arts, sciences, and education, and predicts a move toward a more conservative national ethos in Hungary.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s actions have sparked much backlash. In an October 18, 2018 statement<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/a>CEU\u2019s Department of Gender Studies, which has operated for more than twenty years<\/strong><\/a>,<\/a> \u201cexpress[ed] its vehement opposition to such a blatant\u00a0and forceful imposing of restrictions to academic research and teaching at CEU and elsewhere.\u201d The Political Studies Association<\/strong><\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0an organization that supports social science research, said the decree called into question Hungary\u2019s commitment to democracy and defended the banned discipline, stating<\/strong><\/a>,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cGender Studies is an integral part of understanding the complexities of social interaction, the impact of policy, the dynamics of the economy and the extent of abuse of personal and political power.\u201d In September, the European Union approved a proposal<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in response to the Orban administration\u2019s professed intent to target Gender Studies programs, asking member states to determine whether Hungary was at risk of violating the organization\u2019s founding values, a step that was considered unprecedented. The proposal could potentially lead to sanctions against Hungary<\/strong><\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the decisions of the Orban administration have not met the same condemnation elsewhere. Specifically, Harvard Law School professor Adrian Vermuele expressed support for the Hungarian government\u2019s action. The Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law replied to a tweet<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0about the removal of Gender Studies from the list of accredited degrees, writing, \u201cSo it is possible to fight the decay, after all.\u201d Furthermore, although it did not comment directly on the Gender Studies ban, the Trump administration has expressed support<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for Prime Minister Orban and made moves to strengthen diplomatic relations with Hungary\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The danger in any kind of support for such anti-democratic governmental actions lies in the fact that the Hungarian government\u2019s tactics are not unique. Academic freedom has long been one of the primary targets of totalitarian governments. Indeed, authoritarian regimes across Europe have been increasingly limiting<\/a><\/a><\/strong> academic freedom in recent years. It is equally common for oppressive governments to target non-academic institutions dedicated to the pursuit of gender equality and justice. Because gender equality and greater political participation by women and other marginalized groups leads to more inclusive and democratic governments<\/strong><\/a>, attacks on gender equality and on LGBTQ groups such as the transgender community by autocrats are frequent. Gender Studies, as a discipline that<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u201ccritically analyze[s] the social and cultural construction of gender across many spheres of human life and forms of expression,\u201d and \u201cinterrogate[s] multiple dimensions of gendered and other intersecting social hierarchies,\u201d is an obvious potential target. Significantly, the Gender Studies discipline also recognizes that one\u2019s gender can be different than the one assigned to them at birth. In this way, by banning Gender Studies as an academic discipline, Orban\u2019s administration is engaging in the same brand of transgender erasure<\/strong><\/a> that the Trump administration is currently attempting<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It would be easy to view the ban of Gender Studies in Hungary as a faraway problem that does not affect Americans. But it is clear that these anti-democratic policies are growing closer and closer to home. Professors at elite American legal institutions are supporting regressive policies, and the federal government is engaging in similar actions and seeking to form closer bonds with totalitarian regimes. It is crucial that Americans continue to speak out against such destructions of democratic freedoms, lest these policies become the norm.<\/p>\n

\n

Becky Prager<\/strong> is a third-year student at Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 12, 2018, the Hungarian government officially removed\u00a0Gender Studies Masters and PhD degrees from the list of accredited subjects in the country. The government also issued a decree rescinding the accreditation and funding for Gender Studies programs at two Hungarian universities, E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University (a state-run school) and Central European University (also known as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19022,"featured_media":2416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2019\/01\/pexels-photo-358484.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQij-CX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}