Academic freedom and transphobia in UK higher education: two sides of the same coin?

Abstract

Universities and their campuses are often conceptualized as a particularly prominent battleground for the 21st century’s culture wars. In such arguments, academic freedom – as a specific and contextualized instantiation of free speech – is pitted against a rising tide of liberal progressivism and identity politics that acts to stifle traditional or conservative values. These academic culture wars have variably centred on the de/platforming of externally invited guest speakers, institutional responses to academics’ communications outwith their place of employment, and contestation over the inclusion or exclusion of specific theories within teaching materials. One particular social issue on which these academic culture wars have been predicated – among several others – is that of transgender inclusion (and its antagonistic counterpart: gender critical ideology). This chapter examines how academic freedom and transphobia have been conflated, both conceptually and discursively, in recent years. In so doing, it draws from examples of public discourse surrounding ‘gender critical’ academics’ employment experiences and written evidence underpinning recently passed legislation (e.g. the UK’s Higher Education [Freedom of Speech] Act 2023). The chapter explains how ideological constructions of higher education and its purpose to promote academic freedom have been deployed to legitimize transphobia. It also discusses how accusations of transphobia have not been granted the same protections in the name of academic freedom. Ultimately, this chapter explores the uneven deployment of ‘academic freedom’ as an ideological weapon in 21st-century gender-based culture wars and highlights the fickleness of specific brands of politics in relation to protecting the sanctity of higher education and its social purpose.

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ORCID for Lexi Webster: orcid.org/0000-0001-5721-8236

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