Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and the Threat to Academic Freedom (Societas)

There can be no doubt that discrimination based on sex, race, ethnicity, religion or beliefs should not be tolerated in academia. Surprisingly, however, in recent years, policies of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE), officially introduced to counteract discrimination, have increasingly led to quite the opposite result: the exclusion of individuals who do not share a radical 'woke' ideology on identity politics (feminism, other gender activisms, critical race theory, etc.), and to the suppression of the academic freedom to discuss such dogmas. This subversion of academia ― disguised Trojan-horse style as universal human rights advocacy ― is unacceptable because academia must be politically neutral and protect freedom of speech, a cornerstone of professional scholarly activity without which universities as we know them will slowly but surely suffocate.

Our purpose here is to put together some particularly illustrative cases of such repression in a single book, testifying to a ubiquitous trend within western culture, irreducible to a few isolated complaints. The essays contained here illustrate the abuse of power, censorship and witch-hunts at many universities and research centres in the name of DIE.

List of coauthors in alphabetical order: Dorian Abbot, Tomonori Agoh, Gerhard Amendt, Ivar Arpi, David Benatar, Peter Boghossian, Civitas Research Team, David Díaz Pardo de Vera, Pedro Domingos, Janice Fiamengo, Étienne Forest, Jorge Gibert Galassi, Norman Goldstuck, José L. González Quirós, Lawrence M. Krauss, Patrick LaBelle, James Lindsay, Martín López Corredoira, Heather Mac Donald, Martin Malmgren, Jordan Peterson, Helen Pluckrose, Constantin Polychronakos, Erik. J. Olsson, Philip C. Salzman, Alessandro Strumia, Tom Todd, Andrei Yafaev.

Martín López-Corredoira has a PhD in Philosophy (Univ. of Seville, Spain; 2003) and PhD in Physics (Univ. of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain; 1997). At present, since 2011, he is permanent staff researcher at Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in Tenerife (Spain). Previous books include: main editor of Against the Tide: A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done (2008, Universal Publishers); author of The Twilight of the Scientific Age (2013, BrownWalker Press); author of Fundamental Ideas in Cosmology. Scientific, philosophical and sociological critical perspectives (2022, IoP Publishing).

Tom Todd lives in Hamburg (Germany), studied European History and Philosophy at the University of East Anglia (UK) and worked mostly as a translator and information technology professional. His latest projects: a scientific conference on domestic/family violence (with Gerhard Amendt, Germany, 2018) and an 8-part series of short films on gender and social issues (Germany, 2020–2022).

Erik J. Olsson is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Lund University, Sweden, a position he has held since 2008. He has a PhD in Theoretical Philosophy, an MSc in Applied Computer Science and a BA in Mathematics from Uppsala University, where he became an Associate Professor (Docent) in 2001. He is an Oxford and Cambridge author. In 2012, Olsson co-founded Academic Rights Watch, an NGO monitoring academic freedom in Sweden by primarily documenting violations of scholars' academic rights.