The Race Equality Charter (REC), overseen by Advance HE, is the product of its attempt to ‘do something’ about racism because, in the words of Chief Executive Alison Johns, the sector has ‘a legal and moral duty’ to do so. No one would dispute the need for universities to do something about racism, but the extent of the problem and how to oppose it are (and always have been) questions for academics to address, not for bureaucratic, partisan prescription.
Eric Kaufman – ‘Kathleen Stock won’t be the last’
After the appalling treatment of gender critical academic Professor Kathleen Stock, who this week resigned from her post at the University of Sussex following a sustained campaign to punish her for ‘wrong think’ on transgender issues, Eric Kaufman warns that a new age of authoritarianism has just begun
Speak out Time: ‘Expect Respect’ – why I said ‘No’.
In the first of our ‘Speak Out Time’ series Professor Ellie Lee, University of Kent, gives us her perspective on the ‘Expect Respect’ module students are expected to take. She explains her opposition to the imposition of Critical Race Theory on students at the University of Kent.
The Race Equality Charter will re-racialise UK universities
The Race Equality Charter threatens to re-racialise UK universities, writes DDU supporter Philip Hammond.
For Equality, Against the Race Equality Charter – Don’t Divide Us Responds To Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter
DDU Academics are a group of academics working in the university sector, aligned with the Don’t Divide Us campaign. We believe that the Race Equality Charter is more likely to promote division than the worthy aim of equality on campus. Also, by endorsing particular, contested views, it will limit discussion of a range of important issues relating to race and racism.
T M Murray Reviews Göran Adamson’s latest book ‘Masochistic Nationalism’
Nationalism’s Identical Twin Enchants Westerners with the Lure of the Exotic – ‘Swedish sociologist Göran Adamson’s latest book is about two forms of nationalism… One of them (white supremacist nationalism) unites in vengeance, the other (anti-white nationalism) in shame’ writes T M Murray.
Microaggressions: In the Eye of the Beholder
by Carole Sherwood, psychologist Cambridge University was recently embroiled in controversy over a Report & Support’ website launched for the anonymous reporting of microaggressions by students and staff. The university claimed this was to encourage a ‘safe, welcoming and inclusive community’ but academics expressed concern that they could be reported for ‘offences’ such as raising […]
Joanna Williams of Cieo dissects The Woke University
In The Woke University, Joanna Williams argues that this institutional model has replaced educational goals with a mission to inculcate particular values
A Matter of Historical Specificity (or its absence)
Below, J. Unsworth, a DDU supporter and former student of History and English Literature, explains why she found an event at Cambridge University on Winston Churchill left much to be desired. The level of debate among learned academics shows, once again, that ‘the divisiveness and tribalism that emerges now again in different periods and different […]
Free Speech and English Working-Class Identity
In this honest and moving account, Bradley Strotten at The Equiano Project, and ambassador for the newly formed Free Speech Champions, reflects on his working-class background, his relationship with his father and writes: Furthermore, unlike my younger self, I do not think that the expression of national pride, a sense of belonging, and concern over […]