Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Freedom of Speech disabled at QUT

What did I say? Now I'm part of the small town gossip network!

Okay, so here's this story in short form:
1. PhD student presents parts of his video in progress entitled "(Craig and William): Downunder Mystery Tour." The thesis itself is entitled "Laughing at the Disabled: Creating comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains."

2. Two profs in the audience are confronted and offended, but not entertained. They complain to the thesis advisors and the university ethics committee. They don't feel that anyone takes their concerns seriously.

3. So, they write an op-ed in The Australian about the corrupting influence of 'post-structuralism' and why they don't like this unfinished PhD thesis. They consider this to be taking the debate to the public.

4. The university decides that they are violating academic freedom and suspend them for six months without pay.

Got all that?

4 comments:

Holly said...

Concentration camp?? We're not being a bit of a drama queen, are we?

Rufus said...

Well, certainly if it was a concentration camp, you'd think he'd want to leave!

Holly said...

They were *paying him*. Of course he didn't want to leave.

Rufus said...

Ah yes, tenure macht frei.