Melbourne academic Professor Holly Lawford-Smith says University of Melbourne campus protesters who label her new website on the “protection of sex-segregated spaces” as “transphobic” are negatively impacting women on campus.

Ms Lawford-Smith said the protests have escalated from petitions and effects of media exposure to a “broad attack” such as “shutting down” a unit on feminism she teaches.

She also maintained her website was a “personal activist project” and not a university research project amid “accusations” criticising her “research ethics”.

“It’s so distressing it’s creating a real sort of chilling effect on speech on campus,” she said.

“I already know from a number of different students about their sort of negative experiences in various classes that’ve been shut down from being able to ask questions about sex and sex-based rights, to be able to sort of question things from a gender-critical perspective at all.

“So protests like this are really negatively impacting women on campus.”