Scientists from groups underrepresented in academia (including women, members of racialized or minoritized groups, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others) and those researching counter-hegemonic fields such as feminism, racial studies, queer theory, and indigenous epistemology have historically faced attacks and persecution. These threats come from various actors, including corporations, religious institutions, extremist communities, political groups, and governments. Recently, far-right governments and anti-intellectual movements have increasingly targeted higher education and scientific research, amplified by a global, algorithmically-driven media ecosystem. Researchers investigating technology often face retaliation from corporations when their findings challenge corporate power. Such cases exemplify risky research, or research that makes the researcher vulnerable to external harms.

Despite these escalating risks, institutional responses--from universities to law enforcement--remain inadequate, particularly for researchers in precarious positions. This roundtable invites discussions on advancing a collective paradigm for risk management focused on community resilience, long-lasting institutional responses and strategies for digital care.

We will include a brief introduction of the new AOIR Risky Research guide, created collaboratively by the AOIR Risky Research Working Group. This document was designed to outline risks to researchers, provide guidelines for individual, institutional, and collective risk mitigation, help individuals respond to threats when they happen, and share resources and best practices for researchers at all levels.

Our panel is co-organized by Alice Marwick, Director of Research at Data & Society and organizer of the Risky Research working group, and Beatrys Rodrigues, PhD Candidate at Cornell University. Participants include Alex Ketchum, Assistant Professor at McGill University and Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab; Adrienne Massanari, Associate Professor at American University and author of Gaming Democracy: How Silicon Valley Leveled Up the Far Right (MIT 2024); and Rebekah Tromble, Associate Professor at the George Washington University and member of the Researcher Support Consortium.