A prominent historian warned of the threat posed to gender studies programmes worldwide as part of a last-ditch protest against the expulsion of the Central European University from Budapest.

Joan Wallach Scott, one of the pioneers of gender history, said that it was ¡°no accident¡± that gender studies was coming under attack from authoritarian, right-wing politicians, because entrenching gender differences was a way of ¡°legitimising their notion of power and authority¡±.

She spoke to students protesting against the imminent relocation of parts of the CEU¡¯s operations to Vienna. A ¡°Free University¡± set up in front of Hungary¡¯s parliament has been hosting lectures in tents to illustrate the subjects that organisers say will be lost if the CEU leaves Hungary, and?because of the government¡¯s defunding of gender studies programmes.

The animus against gender studies was not just a ¡°side issue¡± for the far right, Professor Scott, professor emerita at the?Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, told students. ¡°It¡¯s a vision of the world in which men are superior to women, inequality is the name of the game and tradition is what¡¯s being protected by these authoritarian rulers,¡± she argued.

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¡°What is happening all over the world, and especially in countries ruled by authoritarian types, is an attack on higher education,¡± Professor Scott later told?Times Higher Education.

Although the expulsion of the CEU was likely to be ¡°unique¡± and ¡°not likely to happen elsewhere¡±, the outlawing of gender programmes was ¡°going on all over the world¡±, she said, pointing to events in Brazil. There, the country¡¯s new far-right president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, has??agreements promising to combat ¡°gender ideology¡±.

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The Free University was hosting lectures on topics including ¡°gendering migrant memories¡±, the ¡°foundations of feminism¡± and the ¡°institutional economy of authoritarian populism¡±. On 3 December, CEU confirmed that incoming students would be enrolled in Vienna, after the Hungarian government failed to sign a deal guaranteeing the?university¡¯s legal status.

Max de Blank, a Dutch master¡¯s student at the CEU who was helping to organise the Free University, said that it had been set up to show ¡°what Hungary will be losing when it forces CEU out the country¡± and prohibits the teaching of gender studies.

david.matthews@timeshighereducation.com