Speakers: David Harvie, Deborah Toner, Gibson Burrell
Convenors: Carlos Azevedo and Ronald Hartz
25th October 2023, 14:00-15:30 United Kingdom Time
In this second webinar, we will debate specifically the Leicester case. In October 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Leicester announced ‘Shaping for Excellence’, a university-wide restructuring programme. On 18th January 2021, the Head of the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (CSSAH) proclaimed the plan to „disinvest from research and scholarship in Critical Management Studies and Political Economy“ at the Business School. Sixteen scholars received letters informing them that they were at risk of redundancy. In total, across the University 145 employees – in four other academic departments and three professional services units – received similar letters. As a result of ‘Shaping for Excellence’, by August 2021 it is estimated that more than 150 staff had left University of Leicester – some were dismissed, many accepted so-called “voluntary” redundancy, and numerous others resigned. This included at least 20 scholars from the School of Business.
Numerous scholarly associations, journal editors and individual scholars condemned the ’disinvestment’ from Critical Management Studies and Political Economy as an egregious attack on academic freedom. What was mostly shocking was that scholars were ‘screened’ for their ‘criticality’ and selected for redundancy because of their research interests, the title and abstracts of their publication, their association with research groups or the journals they published in. In the ‘screening exercise’, isolated words or sentences were cherry-picked from texts to damn them, and articles were likewise damned for being published in the ‘wrong’ journals – Organization was one such, as was Critical Perspectives on Accounting, a journal which, to quote from the screening, ‘as the name suggests offers “critical perspectives”’. However, appeals on these grounds were rejected, with the Deputy VC quoting the university’s relevant ordinance which states that ‘the right of staff to exercise their academic freedom [… is] subject to the rights of the University to manage its activity efficiently and effectively.’ The Deputy VC further insisted that the redundancy case revolved around a ‘strategic proposal to refocus research activity within [University of Leicester School of Business]’, concluding ‘that this is not a case where you have been placed at risk of redundancy because you have questioned and tested received wisdom or put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions.’
In the webinar, we will discuss the Leicester case with scholars who were actively involved in the struggle about ‘Shaping for Excellence’ and the future of critical scholarship at the School of Business.
REGISTRATION
If you would like to attend the webinar, please register at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/academic-freedom-under-attack-the-leicester-case-tickets-730395270917
SPEAKERS
Dr David Harvie is a deprofessionalised intellectual. Until 2021 he was an associate professor of finance and political economy at the University of Leicester, where he was also communications officer and a negotiator with Leicester UCU. He is now a casualised university worker and honorary treasurer of the University and College Union. He is co-founder of the Institute for Commoning and co-author of Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at Our Universities, forthcoming with Zer0.
Dr Deborah Toner is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Leicester, where she has worked since 2012. Her research focuses on the history of alcohol, food and identity in the Americas. Between 2018 and 2021, Deborah was also a branch officer for Leicester UCU, and was Campaigns and Social Media Officer and a negotiator during Leicester UCU’s dispute with University of Leicester over its programme of redundancies called “Shaping for Excellence” in 2020-21.
Prof Gibson Burrell is a Senior Research Fellow at Rennes Business School, France and Honorary Professor of Organization Theory at the UK Universities of Lancaster, Manchester and York. Despite lifetime achievement awards from both the American and British Academies of Management, Senior Management at the University of Leicester deemed that whilst his research (and that of others) was of the requisite quality, it was not worthy of continued support because of its emphasis on being ‘critical’.
Academic Freedom Under Attack 