Academic Freedom, Harassment and GC academics - ask me any questions

Hahaha v good, v good indeed.

Middling Anguish

Tam Blaxter's poetry

What language is it in?

I'm increasingly troubled by the disproportionate weight given to lived experience that may not, in any way, be representative of a majority of people with a condition but, rather, be the small number of edge cases with a dominant narrative

Yeah, you've nailed it. Or the cases whose narrative happens to fit the academic's hobby-horse (which is often about their own lived experience). So many PhD theses now are autobiographical and take stances not derived from evidence but from the researcher's own lived experience - that through the Ph.D. they then obtain the credentials to indoctrinate teach.

"I’m trans—I identify as non-binary and as a trans woman. Those identities have hugely shaped how I’ve experienced being at Cambridge"
From Tam's own words.

Jo, you have over £10, just since 9 am!
#phoenixrising

Tam Blaxter's poetry. I share this link without further comment:
www.datableedzine.com/tam-blaxter-issue-11

Thanks for having the courage to talk about your experiences, Jo. I'm sorry that you have been put through so much.

Thank you for speaking up and fighting for intellectual freedom.

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus I quite agree. Nor many conditions. But that is probably a thread for another time.

As a doctor, I've managed to pick up a thing or two about biology over the years and while I do support trans women and trans men to have the identity they want, how do the TRA brigade explain the following...

Men are at more risk of colorectal cancer
Only men can get prostate cancer
Only women can get one of the gynae cancers
Women are at a much higher risk of breast cancer.
Heart attacks in women present differently to heart attacks in men

I could go on. Differences in risk and presentation in some conditions between the sexes is well known and well researched.

Harassed, silenced & compared to a racist for my gender critical views

Decent early germination for the time of year.

I've just seen this, welcome Jo!

So many women are outraged by this. I've seen more discussing it this week as a result of what's happened to Kathleen and so many of you.

💪

The patients that make up the very vocal twitter groups are not medics or scientists, don't understand medicine or even how our health service work....and yet are pandered to constantly instead of being gently challenged

I'm increasingly troubled by the disproportionate weight given to lived experience that may not, in any way, be representative of a majority of people with a condition but, rather, be the small number of edge cases with a dominant narrative. It's not working out well for autism, as far as I can see.

Then it becomes about 'voices of lived experience' and making a case by picking up on the 'right' voices and bringing them into research and totally ignoring the rest of them.

Reading through because as an adapted parent of a 15 year old girl I'm getting increasingly concerned about her future when she starts uni because she too is GC and has gone against some friends already, been bullied and cast out of a friendship group for holding those beliefs. She's now at a different school and has decided to stay silent during any conversation about trans.

I highlighted the paragraph above because it chimes with my current experience of working as a GP iand dealing with patients with what has become a very controversial condition. The patients that make up the very vocal twitter groups are not medics or scientists, don't understand medicine or even how our health service work....and yet are pandered to constantly instead of being gently challenged and educated. It's insane. Sorry for the derail. Will return to reading the thread. Thanks Jo for everything you are doing.

Was privileged enough to be with Jo IRL as she launched the crowdjustice campaign. She's a brave and honourable woman who has been through absolute hell. I hope MNers can show their support for her. This is an incredibly important case that, if successful, will benefit scores of female academics now and in the future.

There is a crowdfunder for this action, confirmed in this tweet twitter.com/JoPhoenix1/status/1449648472748142598?t=qPzqXhHdnkHT51vQz4K3tw&s=19

I think this (as I experience it) is symptomatic of some academics getting confused between intellectual pursuit, being a 'public intellectual' and activism. So, in some senses, it's about being influenced by social media, having an emotive response to this, and bringing it into the university by crafting teaching and research towards activism for a cause (without really thinking critically about that). Then it becomes about 'voices of lived experience' and making a case by picking up on the 'right' voices and bringing them into research and totally ignoring the rest of them.

You absolutely nailed it YetAnotherSpartacus
Outsourcing thinking and priorities to your Twitter followers should be regarded as a sign of professional misconduct in academia because it undermines academic probity and brings academics into disrepute by making them look like campaigners. The inappropriate advocacy and campaigning is so extreme with some academics sometimes it looks like a form of research misconduct.
Is there a way to formalise discouraging this approach as part of academic standards? Emphasising that activism is fine but it’s a completely separate activity from academic research which needs to be approached with an open mind as to the outcome. While preserving academics’ rights to be political people and talk about the political implications of their findings?

I don’t blame academics who go in for this in some ways. Their whole environment is geared towards them doing this. They are measured on ‘impact’ and public engagement and student numbers to get funding. The Universities want ‘famous name’ academics to give them a commercial edge.

So of course you’ll get academics who then simplify their work down to a personal ‘brand’ and if it’s popular and working for them they won’t deviate from that brand whatever the evidence says. Or they won’t want to gather any evidence in a way that might give them a ‘wrong’ off-message result.
If their brand is unpopular then they risk not being funded again or not being well regarded in their field.

It all seems to go back to making universities into businesses and charging fees to students. The customer will always be right. Window dressing, branding and marketing are an essential part of the job description for academics, placed above objective research and teaching.

What can change here? Do we need a massive review of what universities are for in this age of social media and student fees? If that’s not realistic to achieve what can we change over the next few years? Is there anything that non-academics can do to help?

Tam's poetry has not enlightened me.

Welcome Jo. Another GC academic here. I would be nervous about shouting about my views at work, but I've had loads of one to one conversations with other academics all of whom are GC. Of course students need to be physically safe, but it's also the job of a University to intellectually challenge them, which doesn't mean a diet of constant and illogical affirmation

Thank you Jo and to all of the brave women who have a public platform for speaking out. How can we help you ?

Why would discipline even be relevant if you are being targetted for harrassment?

Looking at the pictures, yes, i think that Tam might have more than an academic interest.

I'm quite amused by the fact that Cartimandua has popped up to accuse all the GC academics to argue outside their areas of expertise, which is a bit of an own goal given Tam's letter.

@ProfJoPhoenix thank you for speaking publicly, we really do need more people like you from academia. I too am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences on the Sex Matters webinar.