Professor Michele Moore

[GCmiddle]

Hi, I just signed up to post this...I don't know if Michele is on here or if anyone here knows her, but I think she could do with a bit of support right now. TRAs are trying to get her sacked from her editorship of a well respected journal, Disability and Society. There is a petition circulating, signed by hundreds of academics and disability rights activists, mostly from US and Canada, but a few from the UK too. All day members of the journal's editorial board have been resigning their positions ie they are supporting the petition and demanding Michele's removal on the grounds of transphobia. it's a pile-on of the worst kind.
I am not on Twitter and don't know how else to contact Michele to offer support. She is not appearing on Northumbria University's website, so I don't know how to contact her...if anyone knows her, please do reach out to her...she is being treated shockingly. I'm really upset about it.

Dianjo. That letter is not specifically related to this attempt to get Michele fired (I do t think, though there are lots of letters!) . It was in response to the letter she signed along with 30plus others in the Times, but as it doesn't actually mention that, and is vague and nice, many who signed didn't know the origin. I would support the wording of that letter for example (and at least one who did sign also signed the Times letter that it was reacting against) . I dont think the people who organised it are any way related to this push against Prof Moore.

But the letter bit of petition against her - yikes. You cen tell its come straight out of American humanities departments, which seem nowadays to be more interested in doing activism through their scholarship than increasing knowledge. Some of the phrases are rote tra, and some are out of current gender studies / race theory type scholarship.

So many of the original signatures are phd students. There is no way I would have signed/organised a letter like that to get a professor on the other side of the world, in a discipline I had no understanding of (the academics are mostly in English, music etc) sacked as a postgrad. The American academics are really teaching their students how to clamp down on academic freedom.

This is horrifying. It was only a few days ago that an american Phd Student and TA had a campaign organised against her. ( see here twitter.com/4th_WaveNow/status/1139293566096879616?s=20 )

How many people have been subjected to this, and how many more will be??

How many people have been subjected to this, and how many more will be??

It's going to get worse, I think. The range of acceptable viewpoints in academia is narrowing, and identity politics is the new religion. Eventually anyone who doesn't speak in slogans will come up against the social media Inquisition and be hounded out. And UCU's new General Secretary will be at the front of the pitchfork-wielding mob, so people won't be able to rely on union support.

Damn! Only just seen this with the 10:00 am deadline - I have emailed [email protected] anyway.

The Disability and Society Journal page states that Michele Moore works at University of Essex:
www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=editorialBoard&journalCode=cdso20

But Michele is not listed on the Univ Essex website
www.essex.ac.uk/people?query=michele+moore

she's University of Northumberland, isn't she?

As far as I know Michele's substantive post was at Northumbria University, but she had a honorary post at the University of Essex. She does not appear on either website now...

Can somone on Twitter let Janice Turner, Andrew Gilligan, James Kirkup, Julie Bindel, etc know what is going on? i feel this needs as much oxygen as possible...

Janice and Julie know, I think.

So as well as supporting the individual people targetted, what can we DO? This is just insane, it just cannot stand.

I think if the publishers do sack Michele, we really need to apply pressure to them to say what they think she has said/done wrong. i think a lot of people jump on the bandwagon, start virtue signalling and don't want to be seen to be doing the 'wrong' thing. But the publishers need to be able to show they have invesigated the matter properly and be able to justify their actions. My concern is also for Michele's actual paid job, as well as this editorship (which will be something she does alongside her main employment) - if there is any suggestion that her paid empolyment is in jeopardy, then we will really will need a concerted campaign towards her University.

Hi everyone, SSAUK has just put out a statement supporting Michele. Can you please share or retweet

We need to keep the pressure up.

This Twitter Search finds latest tweets mentioning the Disability and Society Journal Twitter Account, both supportive and otherwise and almost all are about this issue:
twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%40JDisSoc&src=typd

Letter of support by Miranda Yardley.

mirandayardley.com/en/letter-in-support-of-dr-michele-moore/

Thank you 🙏 much more eloquent than I managed rattled off just before work!!

This is so important.

We have already seen the Hampstead Ponds City of London survey swayed by input from US residents. I assume the Disability and Society Journal will know that cultural attitudes in the US are different.

One specific example is the care for elderly people with dementia. The US approach, seemingly guided by the threat of law suits, used medication and restraint a lot more. The NHS, guided in part by cost, has looked to other ways to retain people's independence, quality of life and dignity. Interestingly there, forward thinking American health care facilities have started to look towards adopting a British approach. (Or at least that is what I learnt from a great New Yorker article of about six years ago. I passed it to my mum's consultant who confirmed that it seemed right.) Just as well the internet did not house US dementia activists who wanted to stop British experts from developing their own approach, or indeed stop Oliver James from promoting an approach that was at variance with the establishment.

Prof Moore should be able to voice her opinions. People with different opinions should be able to voice theirs. This is a new and fluid area and it is the duty of academics and experts to research and debate.

(Curiously with dementia, and I am no academic just someone seeking to manage my mother's condition, Oliver James is essentially arguing for an affirmation only approach. The patient has their own reality. Work within it to avoid upsetting them. The traditional approach demands honesty and feels it is unethical to lie. So if a patient with dementia suddenly announced they were the opposite sex, you should tell them the truth even if it means upsetting them.)

I may be confusing him with someone else but I thought Oliver James was GC? Or is this just in relation to dementia?

But you are absolutely right; academic thought cannot live in echo chambers. Contexts and nuances make such huge differences to individuals and their treatment and outcomes, especially when children and young people and safeguarding and medical, sexual and mental health are concerned.

@NeurotrashWarrior good points!

If "Disability and Society Journal" followed USA terminology it would have included articles referring to people as "mentally retarded" or even "retards" decades after these terms were totally unacceptable in the UK.

There is a Transgender Dementia thread on Mumsnet. This subject is a whole can of worms! People who have transitioned later in life can revert to their original identity and completely forget about their transition. The advice by trans advocacy groups, promoted by at least parts of the NHS, is that the transitioned identity should be respected and affirmed - even if this causes the individual distress and confusion.

If that is a cruel imposition of an ideology on a vulnerable person, which I think it is, then it is arguably equally cruel NOT to affirm a "gender confusion" that occurs with dementia.

Anyway, here is the thread in case anyone wants to pick up that discussion

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3191922-Dementia-Care-for-Transgender-People

Sorry if I was not clear.

I was trying, perhaps not well, to give an example of another area of disability where there is real controversy and differences between a UK and US approach. Autism may well be another.

OJ wrote a book called 'Contented dementia' which has been of real practical help to me, but which hints of disagreement in approach within that area of care. I understand his is not the orthodox approach.

An academic journal should surely be willing to host different views within an area, as long as those views are properly researched and evidenced. It is only through debate that we can test and develop our own views.

It would be a very sad day for academia if an internet pile on were to stop debate in any area. And has real implications for other areas of disability where there is controversy.

Mole. Just seem your post. Wow.

Dementia causes some interesting issues. That sweet bee tattoo can become very scary to someone who has forgotten they ever had it done. Etc. How awful it would be to revert to childhood and forget your SRS.

Oliver James advocates the kinder approach of going along with the world a person is in. If my mother thinks I am her sister, so be it. We are still going to the dentist, peacefully and happily. If I correct her, thereby upsetting her and causing her to lose any orientation, we will never get to the dentist.

But not lying to patients seems deeply ingrained the the heath sector...till we come to TWAW.

@Needmoresleep - just realised that I meant to tag you in my comment about dementia! I tagged @NeurotrashWarrior by mistake! Oops!

Not to worry though. Reading the earlier thread...

this is an area where Sally Hines has expertise

I wonder how many of the signatures would ever be considered as a reviewer, or would have cause to cite the journal?

Poltical citation practices is becoming a thing in America. Some academics advocate not citing old white men if you can cite a woman of colour or trans person etc.... Instead of, you know, citing the most relevant work for what you are trying to say.

Good letter by Miranda -and good she has worked with her and can speak from this viewpoint

Any news? I have not had a reply to my email to Taylor & Francis.

No further news from any source I know of. It seems that T&F were going to decide on Friday but it got delayed until today, which might be marginally good news - at least there seems to be a little reflection going on (or maybe they're just hoping we'll all go away over the weekend, ha ha). I got a nothing-y response to my first communication with T&F which went to a generic e-mail address, but not had any response to the one directly to Ian whatsisname.

I've not had a response either, though I wasn't particularly expecting one. But in yesterday's Sunday Times article, Michelle was quoted as saying that the publisher was being supportive.