A prominent professor who faced student-led cancelation at a prestigious London university is launching an initiative to counter “woke” ideology by establishing a “faculty for common sense” at a rival institution.
Professor Eric Kaufmann, formerly the Head of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London, is founding the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham. This center aims to serve as a bastion of academic free speech and conduct research on contemporary culture wars, including woke perspectives on contentious subjects like transgender rights and critical race theory.
Kaufmann’s inaugural course, “Woke: the Origins, Dynamics, and Implications of an Elite Ideology,” will commence in January, followed by a Master’s degree program in September 2024. Both are touted as the first of their kind globally.
The professor’s decision to create the center follows what he perceives as a five-year campaign to remove him from Birkbeck due to his right-leaning views on topics such as ethnicity, national identity, left-wing ideology, and religion. He voluntarily left Birkbeck in August after a two-decade tenure.
Kaufmann expressed concern about the deteriorating climate at British universities, with morally absolutist, younger, illiberal progressives employing pressure, public reputational attacks, and social media to curtail academic freedom. He believes that academia should foster the advancement of knowledge but laments that deviating from the progressive narrative is met with hostility.
He emphasized the Orwellian threat to Enlightenment values such as free speech, equal treatment, due process, and objective scientific truth posed by this new woke ideology.
Kaufmann’s efforts aim to address the penetration of woke ideology into educational institutions and society at large, which he views as a threat to civilization. He called on parents worldwide to be concerned about its influence on schools, universities, and elite institutions.
The professor’s move to Buckingham, while far less secure than his previous tenured position, aligns with the university’s reputation for upholding diverse views and voices in academia. Buckingham has been recognized as the UK’s top-ranked university for freedom of expression in the 2023 National Student Survey.
Kaufmann’s research at the Centre for Heterodox Social Science will commence immediately, with plans to offer a low-cost 15-week online course open to global participants from January. The center’s mission emphasizes freedom of expression and academic freedom of speech.
Kaufmann acknowledged the overwhelming left-leaning majority in academia but intends to be a vocal minority, focused on the study of woke ideology as a significant cultural and political force. He believes that analyzing the woke left is as crucial as studying the populist right.
His journey from being a relatively “closeted” conservative academic in the UK to becoming associated with conservatism, the academic freedom bill, and the anti-woke movement marked a significant shift. He ultimately views himself as a “scalp” in the battle for academic freedom.
The academic freedom bill, enacted in May, aims to protect dissenting voices in British higher education. It strengthens free speech rights in universities, extends them to students’ unions, and establishes a complaints system for breaches like the “no-platforming” of guest speakers.
Kaufmann’s new role at Buckingham aligns with the university’s tradition of embracing diverse opinions. Last year, it awarded an honorary doctorate to Lord Tony Sewell, the chair of the 2021 Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, known for concluding that the UK is not institutionally racist.
The professor’s experience at Birkbeck included Twitter pile-ons, objections to his participation in a debate on rising ethnic diversity, and internal complaints, which he suspects were related to his work on the academic freedom bill.
Now, he feels free from potential censorship and believes it is time to address the underrepresented area of woke ideology in academia.
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