Latest news with #PeterMathieson
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Many Jewish staff in Scottish universities reject IHRA definition of antisemitism
Sir Peter Mathieson, the principal of Edinburgh University, notes the controversy over the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism (Edinburgh University could unadopt antisemitism definition after report into its colonial links, 27 July). But he contrasts 'some Jewish people' who support the definition with 'some people' who dispute it. In fact, many Jewish staff at the university and across Scotland reject the IHRA definition, and we have come together as the Scottish Universities Jewish Staff Network. We oppose the genocide committed by Israel against Palestine and wish to do so without – as the IHRA would imply – being labelled antisemites. Not in our Philip WadlerOn behalf of the Scottish Universities Jewish Staff Network
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Edinburgh University has no need to apologise for sins of the past
The speed with which Edinburgh University's vice-chancellor Peter Mathieson has moved to issue a 'deep apology' for the university's colonial past and its links with slavery is predictable, but misguided. It was prompted by a race review which, for the past four years has been investigating the role played by the university and some of its most celebrated thinkers, reaching back to the 18th-century Enlightenment, in promoting 'racist ideas' and 'the advancement of colonialism'. Its conclusions are extreme. It argues that Edinburgh was 'a haven for professors and alumni who developed theories of racial inferiority and white supremacism'. It played 'an outsized role in developing pseudo-sciences … that habitually positioned black people at the bottom and white people at the top.' It accuses the university's sometime chancellor, and later foreign secretary, AJ Balfour, of being a racist, and blames his 1948 declaration, creating the state of Israel, for the 'historical harms' that have led to the present Middle East conflict; it goes on to recommend the university ceases 'its direct and indirect investments that are supporting the Israeli government's human rights and international law violations against Palestinian people today'. • Edinburgh University apologises for historic links to racist theories Most contentious of all, it proposes the university should drop the internationally accepted definition of antisemitism, on the grounds it prevents free discussion of Palestinian rights. This is dangerous territory. It goes well beyond the review's remit in examining the university's past links to colonialism, and suggests it should adopt a pro-Palestinian stance. By accepting the review and its recommendations, Mathieson is pitching the university into the centre of a political maelstrom. Across the western world, universities have been striving to maintain an equilibrium between those who demonstrate for Palestinian rights, and Jewish students exposed to antisemitism; in America, Harvard University and others are fighting for their very future as Donald Trump accuses them of supporting anti-Israel protesters and therefore inciting terrorism. If Edinburgh goes along with the recommendations of this review, on the grounds that a long-dead chancellor was responsible for what the review calls 'Israel's war of annihilation in Gaza', it will surrender any claim of independence at a time when establishing peace depends on diplomacy not defiance. Taking sides at a time when feelings run so high is the last thing a university should be doing. From the start, however, the review makes it abundantly clear that balance is not a priority. It says its aim is 'to shine a light on some of the darker aspects of university history', and in doing so it discounts the civilising aspects of Enlightenment thinkers such as David Hume and Adam Ferguson, preferring instead to focus on their racist inclinations, which, claims the review, have filtered through to the university's institutions today. • Student groups back Hamas legal bid to come off UK's terror list The review digs out, once again, the footnote Hume appended to one of his letters, where he suggested non-whites were of inferior intelligence; it castigates medical research at the university which examined the size and shape of African and West Indian skulls in a study known as 'comparative craniology'; it attacks, as a racist venture, the Darien expedition backed by the university, to set up a colony in Central America in the 1690s; and it even criticises the botanists searching for rare plants, who went along with it. Its conclusions are stark. The university, it says, was 'implicated in the practices and systems of enslavement and colonialism and apartheid and genocide of colonialised people across the world'.Yet even as it draws up the charge street, the review concedes the record is not quite as bleak as it is painted. 'Truth-telling,' it admits, 'is not without its complications.' Thus, as the abolition of slavery was being proposed in the late 18th century, multiple meetings were held by students and staff to debate its merits. Dugald Stewart, who taught race as part of his philosophy course, and believed Europeans were superior to non-whites, nevertheless argued that slavery was 'a moral abomination' and took issue with Hume on the subject. Even Ferguson, who is accused of holding racists views, believed that all human beings belonged to the same species. What is more, such views on race were common across Europe at the time, and were certainly not confined to Edinburgh. All of this might have contributed to a genuine debate on the study of race and race relations in the Enlightenment period. Instead the review chooses to see these early links to colonialism and slavery as influencing the whole ethos of the modern university, and proposes steps to reverse it. Among the recommendations are some that would cost the university millions of pounds at a time when its finances are in a perilous state, and would make the study of colonialism and slavery 'central to the [university's] educative mission'. It proposes the setting up of a fully-staffed centre for the study of slavery and colonialism; it recommends that all buildings financed originally by donations linked to the slave trade should be renamed, and any endowments deriving from the trade transferred to promote the hiring of academics from black or minority backgrounds. • Why students are so unhappy with Edinburgh University What the review at no stage recognises, is how the debate on academic freedom has developed since the early days of the Black Lives Matter campaign. There has been a pushback from universities which have found that promoting the interests of ethnic minorities over those of others has sometimes led to the cancelling or restricting of lecturers whose views do not conform to the current trend. Some higher education institutions have faced heavy fines for failing to stand up for the interests of academics targeted by students. There is nothing wrong with exploring a university's history, however unsavoury. That history should, however, be seen in the context of its time and judged against contemporary states of knowledge and opinion. Visiting the sins of the past on the universities of today is not only unfair, it may turn out to be counterproductive. The Edinburgh vice-chancellor's endorsement is one he could come to regret.
The Star
2 days ago
- General
- The Star
Edinburgh university confronts slavery links
FILE PHOTO: The city centre is viewed from Calton Hill Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain February 15, Cheyne/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -The University of Edinburgh benefited financially from transatlantic slavery and served as a haven for scholars developing racist theories in the 18th and 19th centuries, a review has found. The review, commissioned in 2021 and published on Sunday, found the university profited from slavery through individual donations to endowments that have funded bursaries, scholarships, chairs and fellowships. Donations were traced to profits made by individuals and industries involved in enslavement through the cultivation, production and sale of colonial commodities, such as tobacco, sugar and cotton. Edinburgh follows in the footsteps of other UK universities that have acknowledged historical ties to slavery in recent years, including the University of Glasgow, University of Bristol and University of Cambridge. Founded in 1583, Edinburgh holds 15 historic endowments linked to African enslavement and 12 tied to British colonialism in India, Singapore, and South Africa. Some remain active, the review said. "We cannot have a selective memory about our past, focusing only on the historical achievements which make us feel proud," the university's principal Peter Mathieson said. "We are right to address its complexities too." The report said that between 1750 and 1850 the university served as a "haven" for professors and alumni who promoted ideas of African inferiority and played an "outsized role" in developing racial pseudo-sciences that justified slavery and colonial expansion. Among the review's recommendations were the creation of a research and community centre focused on racism, colonialism, and anti-Black violence, and action to address under-representation of Black staff and students, degree awarding disparities and support barriers for those facing racism. As well as universities, other major UK institutions, such as the Church of England and the Bank of England, have also started to recognise how they benefited from slavery's injustices. Some activists and scholars have criticised such efforts as largely symbolic, arguing that true commitment to addressing historical injustices requires meaningful reparations, not just acknowledgements and reports. Calls for reparations have been gaining momentum but the backlash against it has also been growing, with critics saying modern institutions should not be held responsible for historical wrongs. (Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Alison Williams)
Reuters
2 days ago
- General
- Reuters
Edinburgh university confronts slavery links
LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - The University of Edinburgh benefited financially from transatlantic slavery and served as a haven for scholars developing racist theories in the 18th and 19th centuries, a review has found. The review, commissioned in 2021 and published on Sunday, found the university profited from slavery through individual donations to endowments that have funded bursaries, scholarships, chairs and fellowships. Donations were traced to profits made by individuals and industries involved in enslavement through the cultivation, production and sale of colonial commodities, such as tobacco, sugar and cotton. Edinburgh follows in the footsteps of other UK universities that have acknowledged historical ties to slavery in recent years, including the University of Glasgow, University of Bristol and University of Cambridge. Founded in 1583, Edinburgh holds 15 historic endowments linked to African enslavement and 12 tied to British colonialism in India, Singapore, and South Africa. Some remain active, the review said. "We cannot have a selective memory about our past, focusing only on the historical achievements which make us feel proud," the university's principal Peter Mathieson said. "We are right to address its complexities too." The report said that between 1750 and 1850 the university served as a "haven" for professors and alumni who promoted ideas of African inferiority and played an "outsized role" in developing racial pseudo-sciences that justified slavery and colonial expansion. Among the review's recommendations were the creation of a research and community centre focused on racism, colonialism, and anti-Black violence, and action to address under-representation of Black staff and students, degree awarding disparities and support barriers for those facing racism. As well as universities, other major UK institutions, such as the Church of England and the Bank of England, have also started to recognise how they benefited from slavery's injustices. Some activists and scholars have criticised such efforts as largely symbolic, arguing that true commitment to addressing historical injustices requires meaningful reparations, not just acknowledgements and reports. Calls for reparations have been gaining momentum but the backlash against it has also been growing, with critics saying modern institutions should not be held responsible for historical wrongs.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
University of Edinburgh could abandon anti-Semitism definition
The University of Edinburgh could drop a definition of anti-Semitism following a report. Academics have audited the university's links to the empire, particularly the role played by Arthur Balfour, a former prime minister and Edinburgh chancellor, whose influential support for a Jewish homeland they have branded 'racist'. The report on colonial connections has recommended that the university drops the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism that it currently adheres to. It claims that this definition inhibits free discussion of wrongs committed by Israel, as this might come under the scope of the recognised definition for anti-Semitism. Sir Peter Mathieson, the university's principal, has said that discussions about scrapping the definition are still continuing against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Reflection on the definition comes following the publication of the report Decolonised Transformations, produced by the university's research and engagement working group set up in the wake of Black Lives matter protests. It was co-led by Tommy Curry, Edinburgh's chairman in Africana philosophy and black male studies, who has publicly contended that 'phallicism (worship of the phallus)…remains an under-theorised aspect of race/gender theory despite being observable in every theatre of war & colonial oppression such as Palestine'. Mr Curry, the co-leader of the research project, was criticised in 2017 for a radio interview in which he talked about 'killing white people in context' and the fact that 'in order to be equal, in order to be liberated, some white people may have to die'. The same year, he published a paper which argued that the 'fear-desire-anxiety of the white woman' near a black male 'creates the conditions for rape'. In a discussion of the postcolonial thinker Frantz Fanon, he wrote that 'the white woman cries out for rape'. The controversial psychiatrist claimed the 'fear of rape not itself ' could be a 'cry out for rape', and that a woman afraid of black men was'nothing but a putative sexual partner' just as a racist man is a 'repressed homosexual'. Fellow authors also include Esther Stanford-Xosei, a reparations activist, and Shaira Vadasaria, a lecturer in 'race and decolonial studies'. Their report traces the current violence in Gaza to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, in which the statesman, serving as foreign secretary and as chancellor at Edinburgh, offered support for the idea of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East. This 'irreversibly triggered a process of settler-colonial dispossession and dehumanisation in Palestine', which continues 'following the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023' with what it terms 'Israel's war of annihilation'. To address this link historical to the foundation of Israel, which happened 18 years after Balfour's death, academics have recommended that Edinburgh establish a 'Palestine studies centre'. Edinburgh may also create a scholarship programme for students of Palestinian heritage, and promote greater levels of teaching on 'race, racism, settler-colonial dispossession, refugees, migration, displacement'. University bosses have also been urged to divest from any investments in companies linked to Israel, a process that has already begun. Their report criticises Britain for inaugurating the dispossession of 'Palestine's Indigenous community'. History of slavery and racism It states that at the time of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, 'General Allenby was put in charge of Britain's 1917 Palestine campaign that led to the occupation of Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip '. The report makes no mention of the fact that Britain was fighting the Ottoman Empire, which had occupied the land of Palestine for 400 years, with the help of Arab allies. The report makes further claims about the 'outsize influence' that Edinburgh had on Britain's history of slavery and racism. Academics have claimed that the university was 'a haven for professors and alumni who developed theories of racial inferiority and white supremacism, such as the idea that Africans were inferior to whites'. The report once cites a small footnote written by alumnus David Hume, in which the renowned 18th century philosopher wrote: 'I am apt to suspect the N------ to be naturally inferior to the whites'. To address this kind of legacy, recommendations have been made to establish another research centre for the 'study of racisms', in addition to further decolonisation of the curriculum.
