Edinburgh Academics for Academic Freedom (EAFAF) are sorry for the continuing delay to rescheduling our screening and discussion of the film Adult Human Female. University managers have assured us that they are committed to enabling this event to go ahead. However, they have imposed several conditions which are proving very difficult to negotiate. In particular, […]

Matthew Brown, student in Philosophy, University of Edinburgh How academically free are we as researchers, teachers, and students? In the practical and social sciences, any exploration that directly puts a subject at risk or that might indirectly harm people in other ways must demonstrate that this has been considered and sufficient steps have been taken […]

My name is Matthew Brown, I am a student of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. I have been following the activity of Edinburgh Academics for Academic Freedom (EdAFAF) who I would like to thank for giving me the opportunity to contribute to their blog. I was not in attendance at the aborted screening of […]

Lindsay Paterson, emeritus professor of education policy, School of Social and Political Science. 12 December 2022   Something ideologically peculiar is happening in the partisan arguments around the UK government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill. This draft legislation would impose a statutory duty on English universities to guarantee freedom of speech for their staff […]

The recording of our recent seminar is now available here. Many thanks to colleagues in Information Services for their help in uploading the recording. Please note: this is an audio recording, with slides, using the University’s lecture capture facility.     Feminist educators have spent decades considering how to challenge gender stereotyping in schools, and […]

by Shereen Benjamin and Neil Thin   It is likely that all staff and students at Edinburgh hope for a social world in which people are not unfairly disadvantaged because of their sex or their transgender identification. If universities are to be spaces for constructive debate on contentious social issues such as sex and gender, […]

We’re delighted to announce that the long-postponed seminar on sex, gender and schools is now open for bookings. We look forward to welcoming you to the University of Edinburgh campus, whatever your views on the subject matter, or whether you’re just curious to learn more. Please use this Eventbrite link for bookings: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sex-gender-and-schools-tickets-326492898047 Feminist educators […]

By Jonathan Hearn   Academic freedom is about safeguarding the right to research, write, speak and teach on topics as one sees fit, without undue interference.  It is the matter of free speech as it applies to the context of universities and other teaching and research organisations.  The states of academic freedom and freedom of […]

Chances are most people reading this will be aware that one of the current flashpoints for academic freedom is the debate on sex, gender and gender identity. You’ve probably heard of Professor Kathleen Stock who was hounded out of her job at the University of Sussex, Professor Selina Todd who needed security guards to accompany […]

Blog by Neil Thin     In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), we are invited to imagine an absurdly polarised dispute about the culturally approved way of breaking open a boiled egg. The Big-Endians of Lilliput have ended up at war with the Little-Endians of Blefuscu over this seemingly intractable debate. It is a well-known […]