Prof Jo Phoenix vs The OU - Employment Tribunal Thread 5

[ickky]

Started on 2nd October at Watford Employment Tribunal (Radius House, 51 Clarendon Rd, Watford WD17 1HP 01923 281750)

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Header should read

URGENT CURRENT CASE - Public Access Request - J Phoenix - The Open University - 3322700/2021

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Abbreviations

JP - Jo Phoenix, Claimant (C)
OU - The Open University, Respondent (R)
J - Regional Employment Judge Young
P - Panel or panel member
BC - Ben Cooper KC, Counsel for C
JM - Jane Mulcahy KC, Counsel for R

OU Departments & Networks:

HWSRA - Health & Wellbeing Strategic Research Area
FASS - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
SPC - Dept of Social Policy & Criminology
KMi - Knowledge Media Institute
GCRN - Gender Critical Research Network

OU witnesses

PB - Dr Paraskevi Boukli, Former Senior Lecturer Criminology, Deputy Head SPC 2021-22
IF - Prof Ian Fribbance Dean of FASS
MW - Prof Marcia Wilson, Dean EDI, 2020-23
CM - Caragh Molloy, Group People Director 2019-23
LD - Dr Leigh Downes, Senior Lecturer in Criminology (in SPC), Academic Lead for EDI FASS 2019-21
PK - Peter Keogh, Professor Health & Society, Member RSSH
DD - Dr Deborah Drake, Senior Lecturer Criminology, Head of SPC 2018-21
CT - Catherine Tomlinson, Senior Student Advisor
LW - Louise Westmarland, Prof of Criminology, Co-Deputy Head SPC, 2018-21, Current Head SPC
JD - John Domingue, Prof of Computing Science, Director KMi, 2015-22
CW - Dr Christopher Williams, Senior Lecturer History
SD - Shaun Daley, Head OU’s Resourcing Hub. Head Strategic Resources, Co-Chair OU’s LGBT+ Staff Network
HBC - Helen Bowes-Catton, Lecturer Social Research Methods
NS - Nicola Snarey, Assoc Lecturer Eng Language
NatS - Natalie Starkey, Outreach & Public Engagement Officer Sch Physical Sciences, 2019-22
CT - Cath Tomlinson, Senior Student Advisor
SJ - Samantha Jacobson, Employee Relations Case Manager
RH - Richard Holliman, Prof Engaged Research, Head School Environment, Earth & Ecosystem Sciences, 2019-22. Member of Investigation Panel investigating the C’s grievance

Witness for JP:

SE - Sarah Earle, Professor Modern History Uni of Oxford, Founding member GCRN

Tribunal Tweets - https://twitter.com/tribunaltweets

TT coverage so far - tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/professor-jo-phoenix-v-the-open-university

Prof Jo Phoenix Witness Statement (scroll to bottom of page and download)

https://jophoenix.substack.com/p/phoenix-v-open-university?sd=pf

Thread 1 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4905118-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-2nd-october-whispers-ben-cooper?page=1

Thread 2 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4913946-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-2?page=1

Thread 3 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4917480-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-3

Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4918479-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-4

HBC: want to give context. historically was a women-only group and when I took it over wanted to make it more incl, eg not saying men or nb not allowed. Wanted to fuck it up for women by letting men in cos we can’t have women have anything fir themselves

why do people like HBC despise women
si much?

A lot of deep sighs, I've noticed.

That attitude really baffles me.

BC takes HBC to her wit statement

More a witless statement than a witness statement.

Probably brought up to believe that women are bitches, conniving, sly, untrustworthy.

For those people who are put off studying at the OU - I think every educational establishment will employ similar thinking people, and will be managed by similar career-prioritising management. I could make the argument that even if the OU wins this case, just the reviews they must have done internally in preparing should have made them tighten up their processes and be better than other establishments.

Remember, these people have never had anyone stand in front of them and say "I don't have to agree with your ideology" without them being able to shout them down and pile abuse on them.

For these people this must be a profoundly shocking experience.

Remember, these people have never had anyone stand in front of them and say "I don't have to agree with your ideology" without them being able to shout them down and pile abuse on them.

This.

Blimey! Fascinating article. Politically I'm quite sympathetic to the authors (UCU strike was a big deal, and no-one loves centralisation and redundanices) but what an interesting application of a quasi-academic methodology.

Does "In this article, we re-examine a series of events using a collective autoethnography: all of us are both ‘subjects’ of the research and generators of some of its data sources (Hayano, 1979)." translate to "In this article we present ourselves as the good guys and there will be no contradictory data or alternative viewpoints"?

It is difficult when your usual 'slam dunk' end to debate ('questioning me on this actually denies existence to trans people') can't be followed by swishing away in righeousness.

Definitely appeared that way at the LBA/Mermaids event

HBC -I only knew Dr Drake through the union WA group about the strikes.

HBC - that WA group could still have been running in 2021.

Wow this thread is trending.

Doing a social network analysis through WA groups and similar must be trivially easy these days.

😳 I bet they were concerned.

HBC retweeted a message saying

Terfs will FOI request from your work emails and phones and you should only discuss on personal email and phones.

😆😆😆

They all seem to be trying to protect DDrake from not being on the support Wsapp group. HBC certain she has deleted everything, all Wapps, sorry guv

BC: reading HBC's message c only use personal emails and comms and delete them cos terfs ask for SARs etc.

HBC: terf isn't a word I use any more

HBC retweeted a tweet which advised it was good practice to delete stuff from your comms re terfs because at the time terfs were making lots of foi requests.

Ah I retweeted advice about hiding your discrimination but that doesn't mean I encouraged hiding information

BC: you retweeted this with 'terf' in it. It's harassing terfs

HBC: Not sure it's harassing. Biology is used to justify prejudice against trans people

HBC lots of sighs, getting tetchy

BC: c retweet - notwithstanding this is positioning harassment claims as vexatious

Only retweeted because of lots of vexatious terf harassment claims.