Gendered Visualities in the University: Space, Language, and Institutional Responsibility

This chapter explores gendered visualities in universities, understood not simply as images but as broader regimes of visibility operating through space, language, and institutional practices. Drawing on feminist organizational theory, it examines how apparently neutral spatial arrangements, visual representations, and communicative conventions shape belonging, legitimacy, and exclusion in academic life. The discussion focuses on two initiatives developed at the University of Trento: the installation of red benches to raise awareness of gender-based violence, and the #finiscequi (#itendshere) campaign addressing harassment, discrimination, and everyday microaggressions. These examples illustrate both the transformative potential and the limitations of symbolic interventions. The chapter argues that visual and linguistic practices can contribute to institutional change when embedded in sustained policies and forms of accountability, reflexivity, and critical visual literacy.