Bullying claim over law professor’s abortion research

Law professor Joanna Howe – ­appointed by Labor to help lead the Migration Review helmed by former top public servant Martin Parkinson – has lodged a stop bullying application against her employer Adelaide University over her research on abortion and regulation of prostitution.

She said the university’s ­approach to her research constituted a “violation of my academic freedom” given it had launched “relentless” investigations in ­response to vexatious complaints.

Professor Howe said she refused to attend a “research integrity course” following a recent investigation – the sixth since ­November 2019 – which cleared her of any breach of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

“It violates my right to academic freedom because they are treating me differently to other university academics who do not publish in areas of controversy,” she told The Weekend Australian. “I refuse to submit to ‘re-education’ because academic freedom should protect the rights of scholars from being constantly harassed by activists who disagree with their research.”

Professor Howe said she was subject to online bullying, harassment, abuse and even physical threats because of her research, which she has promoted on social media. On Monday, she lodged an ­application with the Fair Work Commission against the University of Adelaide seeking an order to stop bullying at work. A conciliation hearing has been scheduled for July 8.

Professor Howe is seeking specific orders requiring the university to exercise powers under its academic freedom policy to dismiss bad-faith complaints made against her and withdraw the imposition of corrective ­actions. Her primary area of ­research is the intersection of ­labour law and migration law – a field in which she is a leading international scholar – but in 2017 she began research on abortion and, in 2021, the regulation of prostitution.

This has seen her examine the different methods of abortion, the regulation and incidence of sex-selective abortion, the regulation and incidence of abortion after ­viability or “late-term abortion” and the regulation and incidence of babies born alive after an abortion. She said her research had resulted in “multiple and repeated threats” to her employment.

Between November 25, 2019, and May 2, 2024, Professor Howe said the university undertook six investigations into her scholarship because of complaints. She described the investigations as “persistent” and “relentless”.

“Five out of six of the investigations found the allegations that were the subject of complaints to be unsubstantiated,” she said.

Professor Howe said the sixth investigation related to a potential breach of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research over a submission she made to a parliamentary inquiry in South Australia. While no breach was subsequently found, Professor Howe said the independent investigator found there were “minor departures from best practice in my submission because one primary source was not cited and I did not use a qualifying statement for one claim”.

“The university … ordered me to do a research integrity course to learn how not to do biased ­research. They gave me 30 days to do the course.” Professor Howe has refused to complete the course, saying that “by choosing to side with the bullies by continually subjecting me to constant investigation and constant scrutiny, they (the university) have failed to meet their obligations to me as a staff member.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/bullying-claim-over-law-professors-abortion-research/news-story/3b85748524de1e8b1ff7085492166ef7

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

*******************************