In The Woke University, Joanna Williams argues that this institutional model has replaced educational goals with a mission to inculcate particular values
Who needs ‘intersectionality’?
Public institutions and businesses are increasingly signing up to the idea of ‘intersectionality’, promising a sensitive appreciation of difference and diversity. But far from being progressive, this concept establishes a static and divisive hierarchy of victimhood, argues Philip Hammond Read on…
Who needs ‘intersectionality’?
by Philip Hammond on behalf of DDU academics The concept of ‘intersectionality’ seems omnipresent today. Human Resources departments in public institutions and businesses miss no opportunity to trumpet its significance. HR Magazine emphasises ‘the importance of intersectionality in HR’, while Personnel Today warns that failure to take proper account of intersectionality could mean that ‘organisations […]
Laïcité and the Need for a Narrative-in-Common
Recently, DDU supporter and lecturer Marie Kawthar Daouda presented a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay which considers the historical development of Laïcité in legal and philosophical terms. She questions whether Laïcité is as universal as some claim, and if it is capable of providing the resources needed for French society to be able to integrate its […]
Open letter: a response from the ‘100’ French scholars
Following the murder of school teacher Samuel Paty, over 100 French academics published a Manifesto supporting a universalist approach to education. They were denounced as ‘deeply disingenuous’ and ‘profoundly dangerous’ in an open letter by a group of academics mostly from English-speaking universities. Here, in a robust response to their critics, the French scholars argue that […]
What Maya Angelou Means When She Says ‘Shakespeare Must Be A Black Girl’
Karen Swallow Prior at The Atlantic makes a compelling case that great literature can deal well with both what is unique and universal about the lives of us all as individuals – when it comes to art, we don’t need to ‘stay in our lanes’: In the women’s literature class I’m teaching this semester—in […]