Should I email my Uni Lecturer about this?

[quote NonnyMouse1337]There is a new website for GC university staff and students.

gcacademianetwork.weebly.com/

Discussion thread here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4159525-New-website-for-GC-university-staff-and-students[/quote]
www.gcacademianetwork.org/ is great at getting the message out there. awful stories.

OP @Magpiemavis did you get a response from the senior Lecturer?

Haven't rtft but as another poster said, lecturers should welcome debate.

I do! I love it when students come up with ideas, but I agree be careful.

There is a new website for GC university staff and students.

gcacademianetwork.weebly.com/

Discussion thread here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4159525-New-website-for-GC-university-staff-and-students

Weighing in a bit late on this but here goes anyway. Early career academic here - I'm absolutely appalled (but sadly, not shocked) to read some of the experiences of students and other lecturers here. They very much coincide with mine. I used to consider gender studies my field but it's a joke now, so am actively distancing myself these days!

@Magpiemavis I admire your courage in emailing this totally unprofessional substitute lecturer. It is important we start pulling people up on this in higher education otherwise they assume everyone thinks the same way and it will become harder and harder for anyone to dissent. Honestly the fact that there is so much to fear in an environment where intellectual freedom should surely be defended... I despair!!

Please can I side-track us all with a confusing debate about whether a recorded lecture is slander or libel? Pleeeeeeease

Its not a good idea to start creating an environment where universities receive solicitors letters for academics stating their opinion, even if the opinion is rigid or wrong. Academic freedom is also important & this really would have a chilling effect. I'm sure it wouldn't be a good idea to persue defamation action in this context given the small audience, the junior position of the academic. I don't believe for a second jkr would want to do it.

The stonewall foi thing is a clever initiative.

well done. My son has started and run a debating club in his 6th form and has raised all these issues successfully and changed the culture a bit.
However, as a young man not emotion about the topic it's easier for him of course.

That’s so helpful. I found out recently my university (in the top 100 ranking) won’t be reapplying this year which is so reassuring especially as there are staff redundancies on the table. Otherwise I would be all over this (and may well be in the future).

HI All,
It's only tangentially related, but for those of us in universities and concerned about the climate for GC feminists - matters are not helped, of course, by the fact that so many universities have become Stonewall Champions.
HOWEVER - there is a wonderful and very easy campaign just launched, sending Freedom of Information requests to public bodies (including universities obvs) about their involvement with Stonewall.
It's a five minute cut-and-paste job.

legalfeminist.org.uk/2021/02/04/shining-a-light-on-stonewalls-activities/?_thumbnail_id=451

I've just done one for a uni other than my own and am hoping that before long somebody will come along to FOI my own. It honestly takes no time at all!

I don’t think it’s going to far because the lecturer should be accountable for what she says.

I would have felt I comfortable and unrepresented as a woman. I would feel that this lecturer has a very rigid world view, possible someone who wold be spiteful and ‘punish’ those who don’t agree.

[quote Run1000km2021]@EyesOpening I think that’s taking things a little far! Whatever happened to just talking (and listening!) to one another as a first option?! Blimey.[/quote]
Well this person seems to be telling all their students that it’s a “fact”, in the name of education. The OP has emailed and the lecturer has stood by their assertation. A letter from a solicitor to the uni, instructing them that proceedings will be taken if this continues would probably be enough for the uni to take action against this kind of talk and possibly make them do something about the culture of silencing of dissenting opinions on this topic.

@EyesOpening I think that’s taking things a little far! Whatever happened to just talking (and listening!) to one another as a first option?! Blimey.

Is this lecture recorded? I would be of the mind to send it to JKR and let her sue for slander

Has it got more like the students think they know more than the lecturer?

Ha ha, yes. And I will hold my hand up, I do learn things sometimes from my students. I lecture in a very fast moving, ever evolving field and sometimes as I spend all my time lecturing it can be hard to keep 100% up with some changes. I'm very happy to have discussions and learn about those sort of things.

But I'm not going to sit back and be told by anyone that having an opinion like JKR makes you a terf. I think my students are generally more sensible.

But I see a lot of Students Union type activity which does make me mentally roll my eyes. Posters, campaigns, etc.

Has it got more like the students think they know more than the lecturer?

There was a time, not than long ago, when students went to university to broaden their minds. However, a toxic blend of consumerism and identity politics has turned universities into a vehicle for the self-validation of privileged middle-class students and junior academics. I have actually heard students say that that they came to university to explore their identity. The idea that the curriculum in the humanities should be revised as it doesn't reflect MEEEE is pervasive. One of the valuable things about an English literature degree is that it can foster empathy and expand our world view. Now there is pressure to only include material that students can identify with and that reflects their "lived experience" and political viewpoint. It's sickeningly narcissistic and, although this all takes place under the guise of "inclusivity", the reality is that all it does is entrench middle-class privilege. Senior managers go along with it because, well, marketing . . .

It's Feb 2021 - but yes, totally agree!

The vast majority of academics across multiple disciplines I know are GC. We talk about it all the time, just not in front of people with pronouns.

Quite so - I really do think this is true. There's been so much going on recently that nobody working in a university nowadays doesn't have some kind grasp of what's going on, and despite how academia may appear on Twitter the majority academics are pretty well educated and don't believe the 'new science' that says sex is a spectrum.

In fact, the pronouns are quite useful in this respect. The believers have all put their pronouns in their signatures - as I say around six or seven out of forty in my department. The rest of us aren't just oblivious, or haven't noticed, or haven't thought about it - most of us have, and we're consciously not putting in pronouns because we don't believe it helps anyone. In fact, I recently updated by email signature to make it look very recent and modern (I hadn't changed it for about seven years before and it was obviously dated), and I've changed the settings so that it gets included in every single email I send. It's not foolproof of course - but by and large, the non-use of pronouns by an academic in Feb 2020 does signify something.

Kung - I don’t now how long you’ve been teaching but I’ve been through a fair bit of HE and only once have I seen a lecturer and student get into a heated ‘discussion’ (this was him trying to push her in her work but she ended up waking out and leaving as she refused to develop her work - it was an art degree).

Has it got more like the students think they know more than the lecturer? If I was in a class like that I’d tell the mouthy students to belt up and pick it up outside the class (as I wasn’t paying to listen to them blether on).

I believe the NSS is only for final year students but module evaluation and emails to personal tutors & management are way to go.

I am a lecturer and had this come up in class. A few students started on how JKR is a transphobic, one called her a bitch.
I shut this down immediately - you will not speak about women like that in class, regardless of how you may interpret their views on anything. It was only a few of them, the rest didn't join in.
Discussed it informally with HoD who agreed it is unacceptable and will act if there is anything further.

My specialism is gender related so I can't avoid this topic and until this year have had no problems - amazingly, this is the first time I've had students take this position. The vast majority of academics across multiple disciplines I know are GC. We talk about it all the time, just not in front of people with pronouns.

My advice - also speak to your personal tutor and say that this made you very uncomfortable knowing that you cannot discuss class material freely because of the bias of the lecturer and when you asked for clarification they responded by referring you to a pressure group rather than an academic source. They should support and advise you on how to deal with it regardless of what they think personally.

Most importantly - write this in the module feedback, internal student surveys and even more importantly in the NSS. This will get listened to and acted upon as NSS scores / comments are all they care about.

@Manderleyagain

If your only takeaway from a module that focuses on violence and particularly violence against women.....is that it’s upsetting because it makes men look bad, then wtf is the point of the module?

Students are scared, they know instinctively what the ‘correct’ responses are and no deviation will be accepted.

This is what this link is about

freespeechchampions.com/

Must be terrible to work or study at a uni at the moment.