Category: Europe

US professor uninvited from Swedish pedagogy conference

Tom Todd/ / Sweden, USA

(from Academic Rights Watch, Sweden)

Non-egalitarian conclusions from IQ studies “in violation of ethical standard”

Concluding, based on empirical findings, that there are differences in intelligence between individuals and groups is not permissible in educational research in Sweden, a country known for its egalitarian policies. Distinguished American professor Linda Gottfredson was originally invited to give a keynote lecture at a pedagogy conference in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Yet, before the conference was about to take place in October this year, she received the message that she had been “uninvited” following protests from other researchers arguing that Gottfredson’s non-egalitarian conclusions contradict the organizer’s ethical standard.

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Sweden gets its own Jordan B. Peterson

Tom Todd/ / Europe, Sweden

(from Academic Rights Watch, Sweden)

Professor refuses to comply with medical school demanding “correct” gender terminology in teaching

In order to prevent students from feeling discriminated the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University has decided to introduce a long list of gender controls in its education programme for the medical profession. One requirement states that teachers must use the “correct” gender terminology. These actions follow a student criticizing renowned professor Germund Hesslow’s course on biological sex differences for conflicting with the university’s discrimination and equal treatment policies. Hesslow has refused to comply with the new speech regulations, making his case parallel to the conflict between Jordan B. Peterson and Canada.

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Academic Rights Watch criticizes Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology: students’ right to free speech violated

Tom Todd/ / Europe, Sweden

(from Academic Rights Watch, Sweden)

Academic Rights Watch has received an audio recording suggesting that students at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm do not have the right to free speech, following a student being accused of harassment for sharing statistics about sex offenders among immigrants. Academic Rights Watch concludes that the university has failed to live up to constitutional and academic standards.

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Applicant for art professorship excluded on political grounds: failed to be “norm critical”

Tom Todd/ / Europe, Sweden

(from Academic Rights Watch, Sweden)

If you are considering a future professorship at the prestigious Swedish University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, you should already start thinking about the political direction of your work. This is signalled by a recent appointment of a professorship in visual communication. One applicant, who is already a professor in the subject in Germany, was deemed not sufficiently “norm critical” for the position. ARW warns for the politicization resulting from the University’s policy to require norm criticism, in a narrow sense, from applicants to academic positions, which favors candidates with a certain political orientation.

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Health of Swedish academia questioned following introduction of reading list gender quotas

Tom Todd/ / Europe, Sweden

(from Academic Rights Watch, Sweden)

Can universities force teachers to use some texts rather than others in the reading list to their own courses? The question arises following the introduction of female author gender quotas at a department at Lund University, Sweden. At least 40% of the course literature should according to department rules be written by female authors. The policy has stunned international observers who are now questioning the health of Swedish academia.

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Swedish scholars need international support amid systematic violations of academic freedom

Tom Todd/ / Europe, Sweden

(from Academic Rights Watch, Sweden)

Swedish academics need support from the international community at a time when their academic rights and social function are being questioned in their home country. Therefore, Academic Rights Watch, a Swedish watchdog, now launches an international site with a selection of cases where academics have had their rights violated. The first posting addresses the case of Senior Lecturer Johan Lundberg at Stockholm University, who was denied promotion to full professor after his criticism of identity politics and postmodernism.

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