Attempts to punish
initiated by academics
is one problem.
A second problem is when
academic faculty and
administrators failed to
prevent punishment
by others.
Academics include faculty,
postdocs, graduate students,
and university administrators.
Undergraduate
students
are excluded.
Some examples:
Professor Selina Todd, history professor at Oxford University:
Disinvited from a feminist conference at Oxford’s Exeter College on February 29, 2020. This resulted from protests by transgender activists.
Professor Bo Winegard, assistant professor of psychology at Marietta College: Fired for unidentified reasons in March, 2020. His article, published in a high quality peer reviewed journal, Personality and Individual Differences, included this statement, “ We argue that population-based cognitive differences are congruent with our best understanding of the world because there are strong reasons to believe that different environments and niches selected for different physical and psychological traits, including general cognitive ability.”
Professor Nathaniel Hiers of the College of North Texas:
Fired on December 2019 for calling micro-aggressions “garbage” in November, 2019.
Laura Tanner, graduate student in Feminist Studies, U. California, Santa Barbara, 2019: Protestors called for her to be removed from campus or, at least, from teaching, for claiming on Twitter that there really are just two human sexes: “Genital cutting of any kind does not change one’s sex and can never make a man into a woman.”
Stephen Gliske, Neuroscientist, U. Michigan, 2019:
Call to retract an article presenting a new theory of gender dysphoria that offended trans activists and their academic supporters. The journal retracted the paper.
Susan Crockford, Zoologist, University of Victoria (Canada), fired (not renewed), 2019: For unspecified reasons after publishing "The Polar Bear Catastrophe That Never Happened".
Sharné Nieuwoudt, Kasha Elizabeth Dickie, Carla Coetsee, Louise Engelbrecht and Elmarie Terblanche Department of Sport Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2019:
Retraction of an article, accepted under conventional peer review practices, but was subject to a petition initiated by an academic, which eventually garnered over 10,000 signatures.
Martin Medhurst, Rhetoric and Communication, Baylor University, 2019:
The editor of the peer reviewed journal, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, wrote an editorial there arguing against a change in the way the National Communication Association (NCA) honors its members as Distinguished Scholars. The editorial was deleted.
Abigail Thompson, Math, U. California, Davis, 2019:
The VP of the American Mathematical Society was denounced and called to resign for posting an essay characterizing diversity statements (new requirements for faculty job applications at many universities) as thinly-veiled political litmus tests.
Alessandro Strumia, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), fired (not renewed), 2018–2019: His talk at a CERN conference argued that women were underrepresented in physics because they were less accomplished. Thousands of people signed a petition denouncing him.
Noah Carl, Social Scientist, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge, UK, 2018–19, fired, and St. Edmunds withdrew the postdoctoral position that they had previously committed to provide him.
Linda Gottfredson, Psychology, University of Delaware 2018:
Disinvited from a conference in Sweden for having produced research showing that there are group differences in average IQ test scores.
Lisa Littman, MD & behavioral scientist, Brown U. 2018:
Call to retract. a paper identifying “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria”, led by transgender activists, and she then got fired from a consulting position.
Ted Hill, Math, Georgia Tech, 2018:
Paper with an evolutionary theory for the the idea that human males are more variable than human females on many attributes. It was accepted for publication at two journals, and then “unaccepted” twice, after protests.
Jonathan Anomaly, Philosophy, UPenn, 2018:
Denunciation of his article titled Defending Eugenics, which argued that the early 20th century form of eugenics (racial superiority, forced sterilizations, etc) was revolting, but that genetic counseling and modern genetic engineering is going to be a boon to young couples seeking some control over the genetics of their offspring.
Allan Josephson, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Louisville, 2018: Fired after faculty complained about his comments regarding gender dysphoria at a conference: “When treating children with gender dysphoria, medical professionals should first seek to understand and treat the psychological issues that often cause this confusion before pursuing more radical, aggressive treatment.”
Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying, Biology, Evergreen College. 2017:
Forced to resign when student protests against them turned violent.
N. Bruce Duthu, pressured to resign as Dean for Faculty of Arts and Sciences, of Dartmouth: For signing a petition supporting BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions, against Israel). Duthu eventually resigned from his deanship (although he is still at Dartmouth).
Bruce Gilley, Political Science, Portland State U. 2017:
His paper, "The Case for Colonialism", was retracted after academics initiated a petition, signed by thousands.
Rebecca Tuvel, Philosophy, Rhodes College, 2017:
Published a paper on trans-racialism which argued if people can change sex because of which sex they identify which, and if race is a social construct with no basis in biology, why can’t they also change race simply by changing which race they identify with ?
Rachel Fulton Brown, Historian, U. Chicago, 2017:
Denounced as a white supremacist in a letter signed by over 1,300 academics calling for unspecified sanctions, for writing for Breitbart, and being friendly with Milo Yiannopolous.
Laura Kipnis, Communications, Northwestern U, 2015–2018:
Title IX was weaponized to harass. Dr. Kipnis for creating a “hostile environment” after she posted an essay arguing that faculty-student romantic relationships might not be so terrible.
Lennart Bengtsson, Climate Science, U. of Reading (UK), 2014:
Joined a conservative climate skeptic think tank, and was then subject to an onslaught of pressure, insults, and hostile emails, basically declaring him a traitor to the cause. After three weeks, he could not stand it any longer, and resigned.
Lawrence Summers, President of Harvard, 2006:
Forced to resign by Harvard faculty for his comments raising speculative hypotheses about women’s under-representation in science fields.
Eric Thompson, Moreno Valley College, Sociology, 2017-ongoing:
Fired in 2017 for having conservative views about homosexuality.
Phillip Adamo, history professor, Augsburg University, 2019:
Removed from position as head of honors program because he had students read work by James Baldwin (a mid-20th century African-American author and intellectual) that used the n-word.
Evan Charney, Duke, Political Science, 2019:
Fired (not renewed) because a handful of students objected to the way he handled issues of race and racism in his classes. He had taught there for 20 years, with very positive student evaluations.
Sam Abrams, Politics, Sarah Lawrence College, 2018:
Threatened physically and professionally for publishing an editorial in the New York Times, based on his survey finding that administrators are even more extremely left wing in their politics than are college faculty — and faculty are already very left wing in their politics !