Australian academics refuse to attend US conferences for fear of being detained

The Guardian

13-04-2025

When Gemma Lucy Smart received an invitation to attend an academic conference in the US, she was excited. But that was before Donald Trump was returned to office.
Now Smart, who has a disability and is queer, has decided it's too risky to travel to Seattle for the social sciences conference in September.
The disabilities officer at the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (Capa) and PhD candidate at the University of Sydney will instead attend remotely.
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Shortly after Trump was inaugurated, the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) made its conference 'hybrid' in response to what it said were 'unpredictable' developments at the US border.
'They were concerned about people entering,' Smart said.
'I work on the history of psychiatry, so my field has a lot to do with diversity, equity and inclusion. They [the conference organisers] very explicitly said 'We don't believe it is safe for everyone to travel to the US, particularly our trans and diverse colleagues.'
'The focus on that is really troubling. That, if you legitimately have a different passport than you were given at a young age, you could be detained.'
The conference's co-chairs announced the hybrid move on 21 January – a day after Trump began his second term. They said in a statement that the decision reflected 'conversations with disability justice and environmental justice scholars and activists'.
'It also comes on the heels of political shifts that have made travel to the US more tenuous for many STS contributors,' they added.
Australian academics are not only cancelling trips to the US for key conferences. Scholarships are being rescinded and grant funding pulled as the fallout from the Trump administration's interference continues.
It follows media reports of travellers having their devices searched at the US border and being denied entry, including a French scientist who had messages on his phone critical of Donald Trump.
Prior to this Trump administration, US visa applicants were required to declare if they had a disability. But Smart said she began to hear accounts of people being stopped and 'detained or denied' on the basis of their condition.
'They are doing things like checking if your medication matches your declared disability. If it doesn't, they can deny you entry,' she said.
'As an openly disabled person, I would be very hesitant to be entering right now. If the conference hadn't switched online, I wouldn't have taken the risk [to attend in person].'
In a statement uploaded to its website in late January, 4S said it was 'aware' that the situation with US border control was 'currently unpredictable'.
'We … will be watching events closely in the coming months to make sure that we are supporting international attendees to the greatest possible extent,' organisers stated. 'Attendees are also encouraged to consult their own countries' travel advice.'
Australia's National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said it had received multiple reports from members that US policy shifts have caused academics to cancel travel, while others have had planned research partnerships terminated with little explanation.
The union's national president, Dr Alison Barnes, said members had expressed 'deeply concerning impacts on their work and careers'.
'Academics are cancelling travel to the US, abandoning valuable research partnerships, and dealing with suddenly terminated grants and contracts,' she said.
'One researcher had their five-year USAID-funded conservation program terminated literally within days of the policy changes … another had a 10-year collaboration with the CDC abruptly ended when their US counterpart was sacked by email.
'Many academics tell us they're avoiding US travel entirely due to genuine fears about border detention and visa issues.'
Barnes said many LGBTQ+ researchers, in particular, no longer felt safe travelling to the US for conferences, 'directly impacting their career progression'.
'We're seeing grant applications go unanswered, contracts for 2025 jeopardised, and researchers facing significant career uncertainty,' she said.
'When our academics fear travelling to major conferences or partnering with US institutions, the impacts ripple through the entire global knowledge ecosystem.
'These changes threaten to isolate US research from vital international exchange at precisely the time when global collaboration is most needed.'
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Smart has a colleague who was shortlisted for a scholarship at an Ivy League university. The academic, who is openly trans, works on gender issues in her research.
'They have been told that the number of scholarships is dwindling, if there are any at all, and that it wouldn't be safe to enter the country,' Smart said. Her colleague declined to comment further but confirmed they'd been warned by the university that travel would be risky.
PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne and the national president of Capa, Jesse Gardner-Russell, said academic conferences are crucial for developing connections and partnerships with international collaboration, particularly for early and mid career-researchers.
'In Stem, the majority of the large research labs with the top equipment will generally be found in the United States,' he said.
'If there are cuts to NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding and how those grants are rolled out, there will be large implications on our researchers even if they don't directly receive that money, because it's impacting their collaborators.'
Last year, Gardner-Russell went to the US for an international research conference in his field of ophthalmology.
'I would never have learned of these individuals or their research if I hadn't had the opportunity to go there and be ingrained in that unique research culture,' he said.
'Losing students that might have to make a judgment call as to whether they can attend a conference based on the possibility of getting detained at the US is really troubling.'
He said there were also concerns over intellectual property, citing reports of phones and devices being taken and examined at the border.
Separately, on Friday, the host of cybersecurity podcast Risky Business, Patrick Gray, posted to Bluesky that he had cancelled a planned trip from Australia to the IT security conference RSA due to take place in San Francisco in April.
'Unfortunately, I have received advice that crossing the border into the United States right now would be a bad idea,' he wrote.
According to Smartraveller, which provides advice on behalf of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, customs and border protection have strict requirements and 'broad powers' for temporary detainment or deportation when assessing eligibility.
'Officials may ask to inspect your electronic devices, emails, text messages or social media accounts. If you refuse, they can deny your entry,' it states.
'You may be held at the port of entry or a nearby detention facility. The Australian government cannot intervene on your behalf, and our ability to provide consular assistance in these circumstances may be limited.'