Eric Kaufmann is a globally educated man. Born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada and Japan and raised with different religions within the family, he later studied in Canada and London. His university career also took him to several continents. Nevertheless – or precisely because of this – he could no longer cope with the demands and rigid attitudes of his current students.
“The climate at British universities has deteriorated because moral absolutists, often younger, intolerant progressives, use the power of public attacks and social media to restrict academic freedom,” the Daily Mail quoted Kaufmann as saying. It is an environment with many targets in which the “woke” left can make your life hell “and it knows it.” You’re afraid of saying the wrong thing in class, so you express yourself carefully and censor yourself.
After 20 years at Birkbeck University in central London, Eric Kaufmann has resigned and sought a new academic home, the University of Buckingham, the oldest of Britain’s five private universities; it is halfway between London and Birmingham. There, from 2024, the 53-year-old author of numerous books will install a new faculty that will critically examine what ultimately drove him from his old job: the current, in his opinion, unreflective attitude of young people towards society.
With a “Center for Heterodox Social Sciences” as a “beacon for academic free speech,” Kaufmann will build a research center there that will address conflicting opinions on buzzwords such as “trans rights” and “critical race theory” (in the UK, the term race implies a critical one dealing with colonial rule). Kaufmann hopes that this will draw global attention to the current criticism of the language. He will hold his first seminar, entitled “Origins, Developments and Impact of an Elite World View,” in January. A master’s course will be offered from September 2024.
One should not equate the attitude of young people with a doctrine, says Kaufmann, otherwise it would be like an Orwellian threat to the Enlightenment when it comes to free speech, equal treatment, due process and objective scientific truth. Kaufmann sees the “woke” ideology as a threat to the basic rights of civilization. All parents should be concerned about how far this thinking has already penetrated schools and universities.
Kaufmann goes even further. “I’m the sort of academic who doesn’t want to see Roald Dahl’s writings sanitized, traditional terms renamed and statues torn down. I don’t want to turn off conversations about immigration, the homeless and the reasons behind them. But if that’s your 2023, then be “You’re radioactive,” he complains.
Kaufmann’s arrival at Buckingham University may also be controversial, but the board has already proven in advance that it supports diverse views and voices, according to the Daily Mail.
