More than 100 academics, including CAF Director Dr Edward Skidelsky, Prof Richard Dawkins and Sir Bernard Silverman, have signed a letter urging the University of Oxford to reinstate Dr Michael Foran’s lecture series after it was cancelled following repeated disruption by trans activists. thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…

More than 100 academics have urged the University of Oxford to reinstate a lecture series that was cancelled after protests from trans activists. In the letter, published in The Times on Thursday, they wrote: “It appears that the university proctors authorised and facilitated protests inside the lecture theatre and did nothing to remove miscreants." thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…

In the aftermath of disruptive protests against lectures, writes Freddie Attenborough on Artillery Row, Oxford University must clarify where it stands on academic freedom thecritic.co.uk/the-screamin…

Calling Michael Foran a “distinguished legal academic” is very generous. He is a Gen Z culture-war lawyer who found a career lane in turning transphobia into respectable-sounding legal argument. People object because they can see the grift, not because they fear “debate.”

Oxford ‘allowed’ trans protest that cancelled lecture series thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…

Oxford ‘allowed’ trans protest that cancelled lecture series thetimes.com/uk/education/ar…

Questions must be asked of the Oxford University Proctors. Why did they allow protests inside a lecture theatre? Why do they think it is acceptable to create a hostile and degrading environment for Michael Foran and his students? What do they think education is for?

STATEMENT: Oxford University is facing serious questions over its handling of repeated disruption of public lectures by Dr @michaelpforan, an associate professor of law and tutorial fellow at Keble College, after trans activists interrupted two events linked to his recent work on sex, gender identity and the legal tensions that have emerged between them. Foran, an expert in equality law whose scholarship was cited in the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers, had been due to deliver four lectures on themes from his recently published book, Sex, Gender Identity and the Law. Footage circulating online shows Foran being interrupted at two separate events. At the first, activists stood in front of his lectern and told the audience he was a “bigot” who “masks his transphobia behind a thin veneer of academia”. One protester then declared: “If you are here in a critical capacity to challenge his ideas... that is not the same as refusing to platform him. He will not be convinced by your arguments. Please join me in walking out and refusing to platform this bigot.” Not unreasonably, Foran cancelled the remaining talks, saying the “escalating disruptive protests” had “undermined the academic nature of this series”. He later added: “In attempting to shame students into de-platforming these lecturers, they manifest the antithesis of what a university stands for.” CAF has questions about what role the University’s Proctors — Oxford officials responsible for overseeing events and enforcing the University’s rules on freedom of speech and protest — played here, and whether they took adequate steps to distinguish between protected protest, which may require facilitation, and conduct foreseeably likely to interfere with the talks themselves, which plainly does not. Although the Proctors exercise their own independent responsibilities under Oxford’s rules, what happened here ought also to concern the institution’s senior leadership. Lord @WilliamJHague, in particular, was elected Chancellor of Oxford in November 2024 on a platform that included a commitment to #freespeech and #academicfreedom. Last year, he warned prospective students that “they will hear things that will upset them, that will offend them”, declaring that there would be “no safe spaces” during his tenure. At CAF, we hope he will use his influence to bring clarity to what occurred in this case and to ensure that those responsible for implementing Oxford’s freedom of speech duties understand both what the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 requires and what it does not. Protecting lawful protest is indeed part of what it means to sustain a culture of free inquiry — but so too is ensuring that protest does not become a soft mechanism for preventing academic events from taking place.