Oxford University dons back trans students’ call to cancel gender-critical academic

[IwantToRetire]

The letter in support of students opposing Professor Stock’s appearance was written and organised by Addi Haran Diman, president of the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society and doctoral researcher in politics at Lincoln College.

In a statement, Mr Haran Diman said the university had been “captivated” by apparently misleading press reports, adding: “We thank the academics who stand by us - the rapid and massive supportive responses completely overwhelmed us and will embolden our efforts.”

... the letter - signed after the SU saga - states Prof Stock’s appearance would not be “an open discussion or balanced debate” and states “trans students should not be made to debate their existence”.

The letter also insists “disinviting someone is not preventing them from speaking”, after supporters of Prof Stock said she had been de-platformed.

Prof Max Van Kleek, who was among signatories, said it was “critical” to support trans students to counter the “increased hostility, violence, and discrimination” they are faced with.

“The trans movement are not enemies of free speech; they have every right to protest speakers who frame them as anything but our full, valid, equals.”

The dons’ letter concludes: “Debate is essential for a vibrant democracy, and we champion it. But what the discourse needs now is more civil conversations and less bad-faith argumentation.

“The theoretical debate over gender does not matter - what matters is trans people’s basic living conditions, autonomy, dignity and respect. Freedom of speech matters, but we shouldn’t forget the right to protest. We call on the media and university to take trans voices seriously and treat them with respect.”

Article in the Telegraph republished by yahoo news Oxford University dons back trans students’ call to cancel gender-critical academic (yahoo.com)

(I tried to find existing thread but couldn't - sorry)

@Solrock

going by the titles, a lot of the people on the list are temporary and / or very junior employees

I'm not sure it's a representative cross section of oxford dons.

"But... look at their pronouns!"

Temporary and / or very junior employees are a representative cross-section of Oxford staff. Right now, 66% of people employed in academic roles at Oxford are on fixed-term contracts (which is, incidentally, a lot higher than in most universities). The higher education sector is incredibly reliant on low-paid, low-status, insecure academic workers, and the list of signatories merely represents that.

I don't think this list is a representative cross section of Oxford academics. Many on this list are not academics.

How the once great universities have fallen.

Oxford University.

I still can't get my head around it.

Interesting. I knew Diane Purkiss online once upon a time. She is a devout Catholic so I am slightly surprised by the letter. She also has a son, Michael Dowling, who is extremely gifted and they featured in a Channel 4 documentary about gifted children (I use they in the plural sense there - she and he). They (plural again) wrote books together under the pseudonym Michael Druitt.

Wikipedia states those books were written jointly with ‘her daughter, Alice Druitt’.

Dianne has a daughter, Hermione Dowling.

#nodebate is not a hallmark of academic rigour.

The college heads (wardens/masters/whatever) REALLY need to get a grip on this if they want to salvage Oxford’s academic reputation.

Where is it the brightest kids apply now? I don’t think it’s Oxbridge anymore!

From the Telegraph article it would appear that this misogynistic campaign is led by two men - Max Van Kleek and Haran Diman.
Quelle surprise. Seems male entitlement never really went out of fashion, it's just found a new fashion.

In a statement, Mr Haran Diman said the university had been “captivated” by apparently misleading press reports

Is it me or does captivated in that context just not make sense? to captivate someone means to hold their attention by being interesting, charming or attractive.

"trans students should not be made to debate their existence”

Well, neither should female ones but here we are.

Clear as day:

Women's rights, dignity, and integrity do not matter. All that matters is trans rights.

Oh that explains it.
I have mixed feelings about her books - she’s a literature person at heart and I don’t think the literary turn in history is an unalloyed good - but I have respect for her cleverness and would previously have said she was too intelligent to put her name to such a woolly and weakly argued document as that letter.

Many of these signatories are neither staff nor academics, they are students. Whatever it takes to pad out the numbers and give an impression of overwhelming anti-woman sentiment eh? I wonder if there is a faculty divide appearing, in the letter supporting KS there were notable dons from Law, Philosophy and Physics (and History). I was pleased to see Law as that is where so much of this woolly thinking will find its terrifying practical application.

This is the letter I think.

It seems to be combining a view of the predicament of trans people, citing all sorts of threats faced by them without backing up why they are threats, with a reason why Kathleen Stock may not speak, without saying exactly why what she would say would threaten them further.

Unless any suggestion or implication that TW are not W or TM are not M as a sex would be seen as debating trans people’s existence?

There seems to be a crossed purpose coming from language about what existence means.

Academics for trans rights

docs.google.com/document/d/1GBNlfB4bTJMOXR0GO6ncPQRPFxQP2xQyIAkICHBZNAg/mobilebasic

There's a recent article I found in the Guardian on free speech that's appropriate to this. The tories, apparently, are doing their fair share of 'deplatforming' people with views they don't like. That's not right either. But I'm glad it covers the situation with DocStock.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/28/defence-of-free-speech-should-not-depend-whose-side-you-take-in-culture-wars

I don't think I believe the right to free speech is absolute. People advocating for rape as an extreme example (I'm sure they're out there). Drawing the line seems very difficult though. Especially as the line will dance around depending on which prism of values, beliefs and prejudices you're looking through when you draw it.

I thought the government had told universities, in no uncertain terms, that they must allow free speech.

Surely that should be that.

And it's clear from the letter that they have no real idea what Kathleen stock is going to say. To people on the outside looking in, it's even more crucial that they allow women like Stock to speak. Their evident ignorance is utterly embarrassing.

Where do they get the bloody arrogance to insist on censoring someone, whose views they aren't at all conversant with, on the basis of secondhand information, that, at the smallest scrutiny, is patent claptrap?

No fricken wonder the government have to insist they implement the basic premise of what a bloody university is for.

I wonder if all these people are real, and if so, whether they actually signed the letter or just had their names added by someone else.

Not a fae or a xie amongst them <shakes head sadly> They really should work on being more inclusive to the neo pronouned, instead of this ignorant promotion of the hegemony of their unexamined pronoun privilege. All pronouns are valid

Yes well put - that was the phrase that jumped out at me. That's the one that really spells out the slipping of standards!

🎉🎉🎉🎉

If the theoretical debate over gender doesn’t matter, why are they putting pronouns in their letter?

Also, if the debate over gender is theoretical and doesn’t matter, why do they care who comes to talk about it?

I read somewhere recently that pronouns are not 'woke', they're about "suicide prevention". So practical rather than theoretical.

I thought that article was doing a really good balanced job until the last paragraph, where it divided all opinions neatly into left and 'anti woke right'. Sigh.