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Speaker Disinvited from 'Uncomfortable Learning' Series for Making FIREUncomfortable
FIRE at Williams College in Massachusetts disinvited self-described 鈥渃ultural critic鈥 Suzanne Venker, of The War on Men and The Flip Side of Feminism, from the 鈥淯ncomfortable Learning鈥 speaker series after other students protested her scheduled talk on campus. According to , the Uncomfortable Learning series is run by Williams students and funded by alumni. The college itself was not involved in the disinvitation.
Zach Wood, one of the students in charge of running the series, told Inside Higher Ed that while he personally wishes Venker could have spoken, security concerns brought on by the hostile response to her invitation prompted the decision to cancel her talk.
Wood said that he worried 鈥漰eople would get riled up while she was speaking. ...The last thing we wanted to do was do something destructive.鈥
Writing for , Venker herself explained how the group informed her via email that she was no longer welcome to give her talk, entitled 鈥淥ne Step Forward, Ten Steps Back: Why Feminism Fails鈥:
鈥淭hank you for agreeing to speak,鈥 read the email, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e not going to be able to host this event.鈥
Though my contact didn鈥檛 give a reason, the day before he鈥檇 sent me this email: 鈥淒ear Ms. Venker, A quick heads up鈥e鈥檝e been advertising the event, and it鈥檚 already stirring a lot of angry reactions among students on campus. We just wanted to make you aware of the current state of students before your presentation鈥︹
When I pressed further as to why the event was being cancelled (though of course I knew why), he conceded that Williams College 鈥渉as never experienced this kind of resistance鈥 to a campus speaker.
The plain irony here is that the very point of this particular speaker series is to bring speakers whose viewpoints likely clash with many students鈥 beliefs. Indeed, Williams describes the 鈥溾 as 鈥 provide countering or unheard opinions on a variety of issues, all with the goal to facilitate greater critical analysis of our own views and encourage diversity of thought.鈥
While universities themselves often disinvite speakers under pressure from the campus community, it is more unusual to see a student group behind these actions. However, as FIREpresident and CEO Greg Lukianoff discussed in his widely acclaimed article in The Atlantic, 鈥,鈥 the call to sanitize campuses of offensive viewpoints is increasingly coming from students themselves. It鈥檚 no surprise, then, that the student group behind Uncomfortable Learning鈥攁 speaker series openly attempting to increase diversity of thought on campus鈥攚ould be a target for this kind of pressure.
Yesterday, the Williams College student newspaper published an editorial highlighting the conflict students face when confronted with controversial speech. The 搁别肠辞谤诲鈥s editorial board goes back and forth between praising the benefits of confronting new viewpoints and openly fretting about students who might face 鈥渆motional injury.鈥 In that vein, the Record鈥檚 staff editorial resolves very little:
The potential value and harm of inviting Venker to speak are difficult to quantify. Weighing the two against each other is an even more complicated calculus, and we at the Record could not come to a unified consensus on this calculation. It is important that Uncomfortable Learning pushes the envelope of campus discourse, but they must consider the potential damage of introducing harmful thoughts into the safe space that is so vital to the College鈥檚 ability to nurture and educate.
Here at 果冻传媒app官方, we believe it鈥檚 an easy equation to solve: when you add more speech to combat speech you dislike, the result is the safest space of all. It鈥檚 a place where everyone鈥檚 ideas鈥攅ven uncomfortable ones鈥攃an be thoughtfully considered and debated.
For more information about speaker disinvitations, you can view 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 comprehensive Disinvitation Database, which logs university-led efforts to disinvite campus speakers.
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