Annual Conference
National Conference of University Equality Bodies in Italy
University of Pisa
20–21 November 2025
Universities, as places where knowledge is created and shared, play a strategic role in promoting equality and social justice. However, the gender gap in academia is neither a marginal nor an occasional phenomenon: it is the result of systemic, layered, and persistent mechanisms operating at multiple levels within academic institutions.
Contributions may address one or more of the following topics from an interdisciplinary, theoretical, or applied perspective:
- Inequalities in academic career paths, particularly regarding access to senior positions and barriers to career advancement;
- The overrepresentation of women researchers in precarious employment and the mechanisms hindering their stabilization within higher education institutions;
- Research evaluation criteria and merit-based metrics, with particular attention to their gendered impact on recruitment and promotion processes;
- The impact of implicit gender bias on the reproduction of academic organizational cultures, including selection, recruitment, peer review, governance, and institutional relationships;
- Harassment, microaggressions, and sexism in academic settings, both in their overt and more subtle, pervasive forms;
- The gender pay gap;
- Intersectional inequalities, focusing on the interactions between gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, health status, ethnic origin, migration background, and socioeconomic status;
- Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) and other policies or tools designed to promote gender equality, transparency, and pay equity;
- University welfare and work–life balance, including policies supporting parenthood, family caregiving responsibilities, and flexible working arrangements.
Abstracts of 3,000–5,000 characters (including spaces) should be submitted using the abstract template and sent to counipar@gmail.com.
The deadline for abstract submission is 22 September 2025.
Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their contribution by 13 October 2025.
Confirmation of participation in the Conference, together with a short biography of the authors of accepted contributions, must be submitted by 17 October 2025.
Once the selection process has been completed, the Conference registration form will be made available.
Call
Registration form
Participation requires that your university be a member of the Conference: see information here
Programme
Committees
Scientific Committee
- Patrizia Tomio (University of Trento)
- Tindara Addabbo (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
- Elisa Attili (University of Macerata)
- Angelo Benozzo (University of Valle d’Aosta)
- Rita Biancheri (University of Pisa)
- Irene Biemmi (University of Florence)
- Elisabetta Catelani (University of Pisa)
- Anna Maria Cherubini (University of Salento)
- Ester Cois (University of Cagliari)
- Eleonora Da Pozzo (University of Pisa)
- Ilia Negri (University of Calabria)
- Renata Pepicelli (University of Pisa)
- Cristina Rossi (Polytechnic University of Milan)
- Chiara Tognolotti (University of Pisa)
Organizing Committee
- University of Pisa: Francesca Pecori (Office for Equality and Differences), Andrea Fineschi (Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics), Arianna Del Monte (Research fellow, Single Guarantee Committee – CUG)
- COUNIPAR: Alice Sgualdini (COUNIPAR Secretariat and University of Cagliari)
Logistics
Information and contacts
