Academics whose research comes under attack in the media and online are being offered extra support by their university under a new model it is hoped can be adopted elsewhere.
In a move praised by a professor who suffered a year-long “smear campaign” because of her work on decolonisation, the University of Leicester is doing more to protect staff who find themselves unexpectedly thrust into the front line of the culture wars.
“We, like many universities, have experienced situations where our academics and professional services staff have suffered a backlash on social media and in other contexts; where people have reacted strongly to research stories and individuals have been subjected to what we call hostile responses,” said Henrietta O’Connor, Leicester’s provost.
“As an institution we realised we were only partially equipped to deal with it and needed to put more support around the impact on the individual and the challenges they were facing.”
