A Witch Hunt Comes for a Nonconformist Professor

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | June 7, 2019 | Daniel Klein

[reaganaut1]

On 30 April 2019, St. Edmunds College, University of Cambridge, rescinded a fellowship to the outstanding young researcher Noah Carl, who self-identifies as a conservative. The rescinding was unjust, and it came after a sustained and equally unjust campaign of leftist protest and demonstration against Dr. Carl. The campaign was unjustly supported by leftist press outlets, including Varsity, the University of Cambridge student newspaper.

I was the external examiner on Dr. Carl’s DPhil from Nuffield, Oxford, so I am familiar with his work. It is a data-intensive investigation of cognitive ability (or intelligence) and its correlates, including ideological views, trust, and self-rated happiness. He wrote a report for the classical liberal Adam Smith Institute on why British academics lean left, and argued that intelligence does not work as explanation. He has published several analyses of the Brexit vote. He follows the scientific literature in recognizing that both “nature” and “nurture” affect the development of cognitive ability. He has not conducted research on race or ethnicity as factors in cognitive ability, but he has written a courageous and thoughtful essay about the ethics of preemptively shutting down such research.

Dr. Carl, then, is a serious and highly accomplished researcher who simply does not conform to leftist ways of interpreting the world and who is not cowed by leftist taboos. As such, he has been singled out as a miscreant. Disgraceful means have been used to take him down. The charges are defamatory.

I read about the rescinding in a May 1 article in Varsity. No less than three times does the article quote Dr. Carl’s former employer saying that he had “collaborated with a number of individuals who were known to hold extremist views,” without naming a single such individual.

[Russ]

If C.S. Lewis was alive today he wouldn’t last a week at Cambridge.

[allendale]

Do away with tenure and politically correct delusion in academia will disappear.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: It is a data-intensive investigation of cognitive ability (or intelligence) and its correlates, including ideological views, trust, and self-rated happiness. He wrote a report for the classical liberal Adam Smith Institute on why British academics lean left, and argued that intelligence does not work as explanation. ::

IOW, liberals are not more intelligent than everyone else.
Ha, ha!
- h/t Nelson Trump

[dp0622]

Tenure is hysterical :)

It’s like being a made man in the mob :)

[Hoffer Rand]

Do away with tenure and politically correct delusion in academia will disappear.

Not necessarily. I work for a private liberal arts college. None of the faculty have tenure. They all work on a contract system. This place is off the charts with PC and liberal ideology.

[justa-hairyape]

So the left actually hates science. Kinda knew it all along. Why would you destroy science over the lie of climate change, if you actually liked science. Why would you destroy the US for illegal immigrants, if you actually liked the US. They are all about projectionism. They say you are anti science because they are anti science. And most of these idiots would not know science if they were actually looking at it, obviously.

[tbw2]

No, because administration is more liberal than the professors. The problem really is rot at the top.

[SunkenCiv]

Daniel Klein: On 30 April 2019, St. Edmunds College, University of Cambridge, rescinded a fellowship to the outstanding young researcher Noah Carl, who self-identifies as a conservative. The rescinding was unjust, and it came after a sustained and equally unjust campaign of leftist protest and demonstration against Dr. Carl. The campaign was unjustly supported by leftist press outlets, including Varsity, the University of Cambridge student newspaper. I was the external examiner on Dr. Carl’s DPhil from Nuffield, Oxford, so I am familiar with his work... He wrote a report for the classical liberal Adam Smith Institute on why British academics lean left, and argued that intelligence does not work as explanation.

Thanks reaganaut1.