Birkbeck lecturer resigns over Eric Kaufmann ‘political project’

A politics lecturer has resigned from Birkbeck, University of London citing the public “political project” of her former departmental head, Eric Kaufmann, along with “the impact on Birkbeck staff and students of being in such close proximity to his far-right followers”.

Lisa Tilley detailed her decision to resign in June in a blog that says that Professor Kaufmann “openly advocates for white racial self-interest politics” and that “nobody seriously calling themselves a feminist or antiracist can continue in a role which involves selling degree programmes to students who will end up in Kaufmann’s classroom”.

Professor Kaufmann, professor of politics at Birkbeck, former head of department and author of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities, has become an influential figure in English higher education.

His report on campus free speech for the right-wing Policy Exchange thinktank formed the blueprint for the bill subsequently introduced by the government, which aims to create a “statutory tort” enabling individuals to sue universities and students’ unions for compensation over breaches of free speech duties.

Dr Tilley writes in her blog that Professor Kaufmann was made head of department just as she started in her post.

Since then, she writes, Professor Kaufmann’s “political project has intensified into, firstly, a more elaborate denigration of left-wing students and colleagues as ‘SJWs’ [‘social justice warriors’], ‘woke fundamentalists’, the ‘woke Taliban’, etc; secondly, into an explicit campaign to roll back equalities efforts, often expressed in the language of incitement around the need to ‘slay’ and ‘defeat’ the ‘beast’ of equalities; and thirdly, a forthright campaign to ban and/or discredit ‘critical race theory’ which has become code for any critical scholarship on race (ie, not ‘white racial interest politics’)”.

Professor Kaufmann’s agenda against CRT is part of a broader project, led in the US, that “targets my own teaching, as well as that of many of my colleagues in other Birkbeck departments, and has already resulted in students expressing concern over whether it is even legal for them to draw on scholarship which could be perceived as CRT in their assignments”, Dr Tilley says.

On the college’s position, she writes: “Birkbeck has encouraged, promoted, and enabled Kaufmann over the years, and he is now by far the most well-known member of staff in the politics department. From his powerful institutional position as a full professor, he is not only openly seeking to roll back equalities within his own institution, but is active in attempts to bring structural change across the sector in the UK.”

Dr Tilley argues that Professor Kaufmann’s “project over these past years has earned him the label of the ‘knight’ of white racial interest politics, and this accolade has been won through the regular denigration of minorities (women, Indigenous and Black communities, etc, as evidenced above). For myself and many others, this project has created a sickening environment in which the dignity and welfare of such minoritised groups is regularly undermined.”

Professor Kaufmann said: “I was always courteous and respectful to Lisa, and wish her the very best in her next appointment. I reject the charge of racism, which has repeatedly been made by those who wilfully misrepresent my words, and will not cease criticising movements which I believe threaten expressive freedom and Enlightenment reason.”

A Birkbeck spokesman said: “Birkbeck provides education to people who may not otherwise be able to access it. We are proud of our diverse student body and workforce and the value that diversity brings to college life. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity. We have formal processes for students and staff to raise issues and concerns, investigating and responding to them accordingly.”

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com