Cambridge tutor: don't force me to 'respect' your views

Freddie Sayers meets Dr Arif Ahmed of Cambridge University.

For article and key quotes see here:
https://unherd.com/thepost/tutor-speaks-out-on-cambridge-free-speech-battle/

Over recent years, we’ve learned to pay attention to the intellectual trends and taboos on university campuses — they have a way of spilling out into mainstream corporate and political life.

Which is why the vote among the 7,000 faculty at Cambridge on a new ‘free speech policy’ matters. The results will be announced tomorrow at 5pm and will be an indication of the willingness to resist the increasing threats to free speech and academic enquiry around politically sensitive topics.

Cambridge has been in the news all year in this regard —rescinding the invitation of a visiting fellowship to Canadian academic Jordan Peterson, removing academic Noah Carl after his controversial study into race and intelligence, and subjecting a college porter to a campaign to be removed after he voted a certain way on a trans issue as a Labour local councillor.

I spoke to Dr Arif Ahmed, a Philosophy tutor and fellow on Gonville and Caius college, who has raised concerns that the inclusion of a requirement to be ‘respectful’ of people’s opinions and identities, included in the proposed free speech policy, risks legitimising future censorship. He thinks it could have been used to justify excluding Jordan Peterson, on the grounds that he has not been sufficiently respectful of certain religions, or forbidding the inclusion of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in a course about free speech. He suggests it is replaced with the word ‘tolerate.’

Listen to the podcast version of the interview on:
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/tutor-speaks-out-on-cambridge-free-speech-battle/id1540134798?i=1000501593116
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YzwgyoBTdobbSFWelJyAE?si=U_IG1LdFSgOx_Y2j9KTMIA
Acast: https://shows.acast.com/lockdowntv-with-freddie-sayers/episodes/inside-cambridge-universitys-free-speech-battle

Видео Cambridge tutor: don't force me to 'respect' your views канала UnHerd