Tag: universities

Shakespeare’s Macbeth Branded as Racist for Themes Like ‘Darkness’

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth has been accused by an academic hosted by the Globe Theatre of being “racialised” with references to “darkness”.

In the latest instalment of ‘Anti-Racist Shakespeare’ webinars hosted by the Bard’s Globe Theatre in London, assistant professor of English at Trinity University in Texas Kathryn Vomero Santos declared that the language in Macbeth demonstrates the alleged racial bias of the 17th century playwright.

According to comments reported by the Daily Mail, Vomero Santos claimed in the discussion that the use of words such as bat, beetle, black, and night could be seen as examples of “racialised” language in the play that examines the corrupting nature of power.

Pointing to a scene in which the lead character is referred to as “black Macbeth”, the American academic reportedly said: “I think that it’s important to help our students to see the ways in which a play we might not recognise immediately as a ‘race play’ is relying on racialised language and playing on the dichotomy of whiteness and blackness and dark and light.”

The professor was backed up by playwright Migdalia Cruz, who said of the use of words such as Jew, Moor, and Turk within the play:  “A lot of people cut those things and I thought, I am not going to make him not a racist, he is a racist – but a racist of his time. Everyone in his time were racists.”

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LAWSUIT: FIRE sues to stop California from forcing professors to teach DEI

Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a lawsuit on behalf of six California community college professors to halt new, systemwide regulations forcing professors to espouse and teach politicized conceptions of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Each of the professors teach at one of three Fresno-area community colleges within the State Center Community College District. Under the new regulations, all of the more-than-54,000 professors who teach in the California Community Colleges system must incorporate “anti-racist” viewpoints into classroom teaching. 

The regulations explicitly require professors to pledge allegiance to contested ideological viewpoints. Professors must “acknowledge” that “cultural and social identities are diverse, fluid, and intersectional,” and they must develop “knowledge of the intersectionality of social identities and the multiple axes of oppression that people from different racial, ethnic, and other minoritized groups face.” Faculty performance and tenure will be evaluated based on professors’ commitment to and promotion of the government’s viewpoints. 

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‘Identity and Justice’ scholar explores ‘structural racism in chemistry’

Critical race theory can be applied to the teaching of chemistry, according to a University of Illinois-Chicago professor.

Professor Terrell Morton is an “Identity and Justice in STEM Education” scholar who “draws from critical race theory, phenomenology, and human development to ascertain Black students’ consciousness and how it manifests in their various embodiments and actions that facilitate their STEM postsecondary engagements,” according to his faculty bio.

He held a similar job at the University of Missouri where he was brought on as a diversity hire. He was in the “inaugural cohort of Preparing Future Faculty Postdoctoral Fellows for Diversity at MU,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

He wrote in Nature that CRT can “identify tangible strategies for redressing and mitigating structural racism in chemistry.”

Professor Morton (pictured) wrote that chemistry and the science field at large “has maintained a culture that typically favours white, cisgender, middle-to-high socioeconomic status, heterosexual, non-disabled men.”

Minority students, he wrote, “must alter their presentation of themselves to be seen as someone capable of succeeding — including abandoning aspects of their home and cultural identities, having to go above and beyond to demonstrate their intellectual capabilities.”

Morton says that “is not divisive, it is not designed to shame, demonize or encourage hate, and it does not inherently produce feelings of guilt or blame” and is not taught in schools, despite the claims of conservative politicians. In fact, it is “rarely taught” even in undergraduate, according to the UIC “scholar-activist.”

There are several ways the scholar found racism embedded in chemistry. “Racial realism applied to chemistry acknowledges that the field, and science generally, exists as a microcosm of the broader society and thereby perpetuates structural racism or gendered racism,” he wrote.

“Whiteness as property,” according to Morton, explains why the contributions of black scientists are not respected. “The erasure of Black perspectives and experiences in science, historical and contemporary, normalize science as white property, perpetuating feelings of invisibility and hypervisibility for Black students.”

Morton previously gave a presentation in 2021 on “deprogramming whiteness” which made similar points as his 2023 essay.

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Law Profs Tout Qualified Immunity for Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions

Some ideas are so terrible that combining them into a cocktail of awfulness makes rotten sense. So it is with gun control and qualified immunity: Why not mix impunity for violating basic rights with denial of a specific right so as to maximize the harm? At least, that’s the inspiration that struck two law professors who propose qualified immunity for enforcing even overtly unconstitutional gun control measures. While the duo sees the idea as much as a means of weakening officials’ protections from liability as for promoting restrictions on private arms, it’s a dangerous innovation that could entrench authoritarianism.

“Gun regulation seems to have hit a legal brick wall,” complain Guha Krishnamurthi, associate professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, and Peter Salib, assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center in Notre Dame Law Review Reflection. “In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court threw out what had been the standard approach for applying the Second Amendment to gun laws.”

Krishnamurthi and Salib argue that Bruen impedes “regulatory innovation” and leaves lawmakers “shackled to the regulations of the distant past.” That’s an interesting way of regretting that government is bound to respect constitutional protections for individual rights. But the two legal thinkers have a fresh regulatory innovation to propose for bypassing such protections—or, at least, a fresh way of applying a controversial legal doctrine to achieve their desired ends.

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Race Hoax: Florida State U. Fires Prof for Faking Data on ‘Systemic Racism’ as Multiple Papers Are Retracted

A Florida State University professor has been fired for “faking data” to prove that the legacy of lynching “makes whites want longer sentences for blacks” as part of his long-running work on “systemic racism.” Six of the professor’s studies have since been retracted.

Florida State criminology professor Eric Stewart, who claimed that “systemic racism” infests America’s police and American society, is now out of a job after nearly 20 years of his data was called into question, according to a report by the New York Post.

So far, six of the professor’s articles published in major academic journals — such as Criminology and Law and Society Review — between 2003 and 2019 have been fully retracted following allegations that Stewart’s data was fake or extremely flawed.

One of Stewart’s retracted studies from 2019 had suggested that the history of lynching’s in the United States has made it so that white Americans perceive black people as criminals, and that the problem is worse among conservatives.

Another retracted 2018 study had claimed that white Americans view black and Latino people as “criminal threats,” and even suggested that perceived threat could lead to “state-sponsored social control.”

A third retracted study had claimed that white Americans want tougher sentences for Latinos due to their community getting larger in America and them finding economic success.

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Journalism professor claims children should be exposed to adult GENITALIA to prepare them for seeing naked trans people in locker rooms – in shocking jab at swimmer Riley Gaines

A University professor has claimed kids should be exposed to adult genitalia to prepare them for the possibility of seeing a naked trans person, in a shocking jab at swimmer Riley Gaines.

Journalism professor Dr. Katja Thieme had made the comment in a Twitter post she shared criticizing swimmer and women’s rights advocate Riley Gaines.

Thieme, who teaches at the University of British Columbia, had been tweeted a video of Gaines explaining the effects of having to compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.

In a lengthy response to the video, in which Thieme blasted Gaines, she also tweeted: ‘Hey, want to know one of my all time excellent parenting ideas?

‘Let. Little. Children. See. Penises. And. Vulvas. Of. Various. Ages. And. Sizes. In. A. Casual. Normalized. Totally. Safe. Way.’

She continued: ‘The world will thank you for it. And so will those children when they grow up.’

Thieme also hit back at Gaines who has become a leading voice against the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Gaines had competed after tying for fifth against controversial trans swimmer Lia Thomas at last year’s NCAA championship.

She previously said the experience of racing Thomas, who raced in the men’s competition until 2019 ‘felt like I was going into the race with my hands tied behind my back.’

During her Twitter thread last month, Thieme labeled Gaines a transphobe and said: ‘Gaines gets tearful about the emotional effect it had on her that Thomas was holding the trophy which she had also won. 

‘That’s just whiny. What a sore not-even-loser.’

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Worker Fired Over Refusal to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Wins Job Back

The University of Virginia wrongly fired an employee who refused to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new ruling.

The university “acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner” when it fired Kaycee McCoy, a cytotechnologist, in 2021, Virginia District Court Judge Claude Worrell Jr. said in a July 27 ruling.

Ms. McCoy had asked for a religious exemption to the university’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, with support from her pastor.

But her employer denied the request and terminated Ms. McCoy in November 2021.

Ms. McCoy quickly took her case to the courts, saying that the refusal to grant an exemption violated Virginia’s Constitution, which states in part that all citizens are “entitled to the free exercise of religion” and that no citizen “shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief.”

The university defended its decision, arguing that the plaintiff’s “personal opinions” and “personal preferences” did not make her entitled to a religious exemption. They also said they did not have to grant her an exemption even if her objection was based on sincere beliefs.

Judge Worrell disagreed, finding in favor of the plaintiff.

Virginia courts uphold governmental actions unless the actions are “arbitrary and capricious” or those taken “without a determining principle,” according to previous court decisions.

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Texas A&M suspended professor accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in lecture

Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic.

The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch in March when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the talk.

In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.

“I am in a ton of trouble. Please call me!” she wrote to Chandler Self, the UTMB professor who invited her to speak.

Alonzo was right to be afraid. Not only were her supervisors involved, but so was Chancellor John Sharp, a former state comptroller who now holds the highest-ranking position in the Texas A&M University System, which includes 11 public universities and 153,000 students. And Sharp was communicating directly with the lieutenant governor’s office about the incident, promising swift action.

Less than two hours after the lecture ended, Patrick’s chief of staff had sent Sharp a link to Alonzo’s professional bio.

Shortly after, Sharp sent a text directly to the lieutenant governor: “Joy Alonzo has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation re firing her. shud [sic] be finished by end of week.”

The text message was signed “jsharp.”

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University to undergo free speech training, pay $80,000 in settlement for allegedly issuing ‘no-contact orders’ against student, instructing peers to report her ‘harmful’ Christian, political views

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville will pay $80,000 in a recent settlement agreement with a graduate student who accused the school of wrongfully issuing “no-contact orders” against her and instructing her peers to report her “harmful rhetoric.”

Maggie DeJong and Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit against the school after the student claimed she was discriminated against for sharing her Christian and conservative political views.

Three of the school’s professors have been ordered to undergo First Amendment training as part of the settlement agreement. Additionally, the university has been required to revise its policies and student handbook to protect students’ political, religious, and ideological views.

In February 2022, school officials issued “no-contact orders” against DeJong after some of her peers reported her comments about religion, politics, critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, Marxism, censorship, COVID-related regulations, and the criminal justice system.

Students accused DeJong of “harassment” and “discrimination,” claiming her rhetoric had “harmed and offended” them, according to the ADF’s lawsuit.

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Computer chip with built-in human brain tissue gets military funding

Last year, Monash University scientists created the “DishBrain” – a semi-biological computer chip with some 800,000 human and mouse brain cells lab-grown into its electrodes. Demonstrating something like sentience, it learned to play Pong within five minutes.

The micro-electrode array at the heart of the DishBrain was capable both of reading activity in the brain cells, and stimulating them with electrical signals, so the research team set up a version of Pong where the brain cells were fed a moving electrical stimulus to represent which side of the “screen” the ball was on, and how far away from the paddle it was. They allowed the brain cells to act on the paddle, moving it left and right.

Then they set up a very basic-reward system, using the fact that small clusters of brain cells tend to try to minimize unpredictability in their environment. So if the paddle hit the ball, the cells would receive a nice, predictable stimulus. But if it missed, the cells would get four seconds of totally unpredictable stimulation.

It was the first time lab-grown brain cells had been used this way, being given not only a way to sense the world, but to act on it, and the results were impressive.

Impressive enough that the research – undertaken in partnership with Melbourne startup Cortical Labs – has now attracted a US$407,000 grant from Australia’s National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants program.

These programmable chips, fusing biological computing with artificial intelligence, “in future may eventually surpass the performance of existing, purely silicon-based hardware,” says project lead, Associate Professor Adeel Razi.

“The outcomes of such research would have significant implications across multiple fields such as, but not limited to, planning, robotics, advanced automation, brain-machine interfaces, and drug discovery, giving Australia a significant strategic advantage,” he said.

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