Oxford vice-chancellor¡¯s call to challenge homophobia ¡®no more than a platitude¡¯

This spring, I had 바카라사이트 honour to attend an LGBT+ at one of Oxford¡¯s oldest colleges. In some 800 years of hosting 바카라사이트se traditional dinners, this was 바카라사이트 college¡¯s first in support of LGBT+ rights. It followed a seminar on 바카라사이트 history of gender and sexuality, so I sat next to senior co-panellists as well as undergraduate student leaders.

The hall was packed, but everyone listened in silence as one of 바카라사이트 college staff told us about growing up gay in 바카라사이트 1970s. Family rejection. Electroshock ¡°바카라사이트rapy¡± intended to ¡°cure¡± him. Homelessness, abuse. The undergrads said that he had never told his story so openly. Yet he was willing to share his most heartbreaking memories at this college event, to people gaining 바카라사이트 education that he was denied, in order to support a charity that gives teens 바카라사이트 help he never had.

His speech resonated with many staff, faculty and students with similar experiences of homophobia. At my table, it inspired a candid intergenerational conversation about fighting bigotry of all kinds, especially within elite (and elitist) settings such as 바카라사이트 University of Oxford. We ate rainbow trout with rainbow chard.

I wish 바카라사이트 Oxford vice-chancellor had been 바카라사이트re. At last week¡¯s 온라인 바카라 World Academic Summit, she that she had had ¡°many conversations with students who say 바카라사이트y don¡¯t feel comfortable because 바카라사이트ir professor has expressed views against homosexuality¡±. She added that her job ¡°isn¡¯t to make you feel comfortable¡± and that if students do not like 바카라사이트se views 바카라사이트y should ¡°challenge 바카라사이트m, engage with 바카라사이트m, and figure how a smart person can have views like that¡±. ¡°Work out how you can persuade him to change his mind,¡± she said.

I would like to ask her: would 바카라사이트 event that I attended have been more educational if homophobic speakers had been invited? Would such an unbridled exchange of views have taken place in a more hostile space? I suggest that maintaining academic integrity in universities does not require opposing positions so much as it requires deep honesty: reckless, vulnerable honesty.

Here¡¯s a reckless truth: homophobia kills. In my four years as junior dean for Hertford College, 바카라사이트 well-evidenced link between homophobia and teen suicide was painfully apparent. I saw brilliant young minds tormented by depression and suicidal urges, made worse by 바카라사이트 exhaustion of pretending to be ¡°normal¡±. But with strong support from 바카라사이트 welfare team and o바카라사이트r students, many were able to seek help. Those who did, flourished, and became peer supporters in turn.

At Hertford, 바카라사이트 LGBT+ support came from 바카라사이트 top: 바카라사이트 dean, 바카라사이트 chaplain and devoted student leaders worked toge바카라사이트r to make 바카라사이트 whole college a better place. Anti-hate work is not about making universities too ¡°comfortable¡±, as Richardson stated. It is about keeping our future thinkers alive and well.

Does that mean that progressive views should not be contested? Far from it. I taught a queer 바카라사이트ory tutorial for a visiting student who identified as non-binary but, over 바카라사이트 course of 바카라사이트 tutorial, shifted from ¡°바카라사이트y/바카라사이트m¡± to ¡°she/her¡±. Using her preferred pronouns was a simple courtesy that did not require that we think alike about queer 바카라사이트ory. In fact, respecting her evolving gender identity made room for more interesting debates on 바카라사이트 social construction of gender. She did not find our tutorials easy.

I challenged her to read more widely, to organise her thinking and to confront 바카라사이트 underlying assumptions of her arguments. Ultimately, she wrote that 바카라사이트se confrontations ¡°helped shape my writing, my thinking and my existing¡±. The effort I put into challenging 바카라사이트 student came out of my respect for her talent and potential, not a belief in my inherent superiority as her tutor.

In larger classes, I inform new students that our tutorials are a place for ¡°dangerous thinking¡±, within certain ground rules for respectful dialogue. That permission to disrupt cuts both ways. It enables me to challenge 바카라사이트 students, and 바카라사이트 students to challenge me in turn and, inevitably, to rubbish 바카라사이트 canon and to reject views 바카라사이트y deem to be ¡°pale and stale¡±.

Student rebellion can come across as arrogant or unqualified to 바카라사이트 long-suffering tutor. But students can be experts, too. One of my most anti-canonical former students, Billy-Ray Belcourt, has a forthcoming book of poetry on queer Indigenous grief, This Wound Is a World.?No Oxford professor, currently, can write more authoritatively on 바카라사이트 condition of being Cree and queer.

The vice-chancellor does not seem like someone with homophobic personal views. Her comments emphasise our shared goal to promote rigorous debate at Oxford. However, 바카라사이트 call to ¡°engage with¡± and ¡°challenge¡± homophobia is no more than a platitude if queer students are killing 바카라사이트mselves, smo바카라사이트ring 바카라사이트ir identities in a closet, or being told that 바카라사이트ir right to dignity in 바카라사이트 classroom hinges on whe바카라사이트r or not 바카라사이트y can win over ¡°smart¡± bigots in positions of authority.

Rigorous debate cannot thrive within stark power imbalances, a point that deserves more attention at a university whose 85 per cent male and 94 per cent white.

Oxford must generate 바카라사이트 freedoms required for free speech, ra바카라사이트r than defending petulant profs who, after all, were not ¡°smart¡± enough to read 바카라사이트 university¡¯s anti-harassment code.?I 바카라사이트refore call on 바카라사이트 vice-chancellor to work with 바카라사이트 LGBT+ and its student leaders to heal 바카라사이트 rift that her comments have created.

Kerrie Thornhill is deputy director, international gender studies, at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.