This is one of those situations where you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Truly, the lack of self-awareness from this mob of charlatans is horrifying to even consider.
Charlotte: thank you for bringing awareness of such PhD theses. From commentary on the Old Testament, there is a frequently-spoken phrase, "Saving one life is the saving of an entire universe." In the case of these PhD authors, I'm not certain that this holds true. Their hyper focused and nearly unintelligible topics are probably not contributing much to society and education--merely expounding upon one individual's lone journey in a reality that is truly their own...completely unconnected to the greater society. Their long and tragic journeys are just beginning in this life and their isolation and pain sound unbearable already. Just wait until real threats and losses come their way.
If the entire Sociology department at Cambridge closed down tomorrow, could the UK economy ever recover from the damage? It would beat Brexit in becoming the worst economic disaster ever!
I'm not stupid but have no idea what any of these studies mean nor hope to achieve nor how findings could be applied in reality. Absolute twaddle. The dissertation will be a word salad beyond understanding nor usefulness.
The PhD on South Africa... is interesting. The black culture do not accept gayness nor trans. These people only find a sense of belonging/acceptance/safety in the mixed cosmopolitan set.
Hopefully, they are, or the bank of Mum and Dad, Universities are businesses. they depend on fees, especially overseas student fees, who may in turn depend on student loans. Would you lend any of these saps the cost of their PHD?
This isn't even unique or pioneering research. It's in a niche genre which goes back to the early 1980s at least, when academic feminism parted ways from the grass-roots women's movement over issues such as pornography.
As a youth, I was taught that you could only earn a PhD by making an original contribution to the world's knowledge. Now, it seems it's just the next level after a masters degree, but how many associate professors of Gender Studies do the universities actually need?
Cambridge Gender Studies Department is a tiny bubble detached from reality in which they all talk fluent gibberish to one another, affirming that they are the clever ones, not us. I'd really love to know how many of the class of the class of 2O24-5 are currently in employment, and doing what. You never know, there may be an unknown goldmine in Gibberish Studies.
Are you suggesting that MY PhD thesis: “Anxiety in the University—Gender Obsession’s intersectionality with un(queer)institutional naval gazing and the pan-societal rejection of the Academe”, might be total bollocks?
I looked up Lauren Willcox, all I can say is that she's supremely qualified to be supervising such research projects. Unfortunately, supremely unqualified for anything else.
Unfortunately, this is not as innocent as it may appear, even if we take into account that funding, and in many cases substantial funding, is diverted towards such studies.
Jason Arday's despicable appointment was likely to have been facilitated by one such PhD candidate. After all, the Faculty of Education enlightened us that it had "listened to the voices of our Black scholars and our Black students".
It may not be entirely fair to call out those who, owing to their student status at Cambridge, were removed from the actual appointment process. However, the student lobby does stand behind that appointment (as well as the well-documented hounding of, and termination of the positions of, other professors and academic staff due to the focus of their research) . And the scale of the Arday scandal, and its repercussions for so many people (including exceptional scholars from the Black community), would probably justify doing so.
Tyra Amofah-Akardom was "in conversation" with Jason Arday as a moderator when he was invited to headline Cambridge University's 2020 Annual Race Equality Lecture. This alone suggests that Cambridge University's promotion of Jason Arday's credentials ("whitewashing") started well before he was appointed in 2023.
Tyra Amofah-Akardom is now a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, the same Faculty that offered Jason Arday a Professorship. She also sits on the Steering Committee of the Black Advisory Hub, the likely lobbying group behind his appointment, as one of the two co-chairs, alongside Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, which offered Jason Arday a Fellowship.
Her PhD is funded by the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholars Programme: “Disorientation and Reimagining Through Community: Black Women’s Activism at ‘Elite’ British and American Universities”. She notes that her research invokes “storytelling as a conceptual backdrop” and, by employing “a constellation of creative qualitative methods”, investigates “the ways that Black women within these institutions embody resistance along racialised, gendered, sexualised and classed lines, by utilising rage, love, and pleasure as political tools”.
That such a project should secure one of Cambridge’s most prestigious postgraduate scholarships speaks volumes about the environment in which it was conceived and funded.
This also helps to create a powerful ecosystem that, in the case of Jason Arday, propelled him to the top of the academic hierarchy. The primary reason for his downfall was arguably not even his outlandish falsehoods - no doubt, these would have been the essence of his lecture in 2020 hosted by Cambridge University Vice-Chancellor (!) - but rather, it was that Cambridge was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about his appointment and afforded him too much media exposure.
Thanks for this additional research. Perhaps Cambridge enabled a black power network within the colleges so that it had counter-examples to point to whenever it was accused of being elitist and racist. If so, it would not have mattered if that network produced little of value, or did not meet established academic standards. Cambridge clearly did not strive for black excellence, and that in itself is racist.
The same could be said for the Gender Studies crowd, a pre-emptive strike against potential accusations of queerphobia. I wonder if the whole point is to placate wealthy woke students, and ensure that they continue to chose Cambridge rather than the Ivy League. As such, this highly contestable research would be commissioned for marketing reasons, so that the non-binary offspring of the billionaire class keep topping up college endowments.
Cambridge does have form as a comfortable nest of pampered individuals with fringe political ideas that wouldn't survive contact with reality. It's why the University produced some of the most significant spies for the Soviet Union, embedded as they were within the British establishment.
Whence and when did this Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies spring up? There was no such thing (I’m almost 100% certain although my existence was in the rarefied Classics Department, far removed then from such guff) when I was an undergraduate way back when.
This is one of those situations where you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Truly, the lack of self-awareness from this mob of charlatans is horrifying to even consider.
Charlotte: thank you for bringing awareness of such PhD theses. From commentary on the Old Testament, there is a frequently-spoken phrase, "Saving one life is the saving of an entire universe." In the case of these PhD authors, I'm not certain that this holds true. Their hyper focused and nearly unintelligible topics are probably not contributing much to society and education--merely expounding upon one individual's lone journey in a reality that is truly their own...completely unconnected to the greater society. Their long and tragic journeys are just beginning in this life and their isolation and pain sound unbearable already. Just wait until real threats and losses come their way.
Yes but they're earning a living it seems.
Brilliantly exposed Charlotte! Cambridge is not alone in academia totally losing the plot! Bring back common sense only and we would save £billions!
If the entire Sociology department at Cambridge closed down tomorrow, could the UK economy ever recover from the damage? It would beat Brexit in becoming the worst economic disaster ever!
Surely this should not be happening in any university. Nor should any public funding be supporting this meaningless nonsense
I'm not stupid but have no idea what any of these studies mean nor hope to achieve nor how findings could be applied in reality. Absolute twaddle. The dissertation will be a word salad beyond understanding nor usefulness.
The PhD on South Africa... is interesting. The black culture do not accept gayness nor trans. These people only find a sense of belonging/acceptance/safety in the mixed cosmopolitan set.
I dont care what they do as long as I'm not paying for it...
I suspect you and we are.....
Who is funding all this sh*te?
Just added some of the sources. We are in two cases! Bill and Melinda Gates in another two.
Hopefully, they are, or the bank of Mum and Dad, Universities are businesses. they depend on fees, especially overseas student fees, who may in turn depend on student loans. Would you lend any of these saps the cost of their PHD?
This isn't even unique or pioneering research. It's in a niche genre which goes back to the early 1980s at least, when academic feminism parted ways from the grass-roots women's movement over issues such as pornography.
As a youth, I was taught that you could only earn a PhD by making an original contribution to the world's knowledge. Now, it seems it's just the next level after a masters degree, but how many associate professors of Gender Studies do the universities actually need?
Cambridge Gender Studies Department is a tiny bubble detached from reality in which they all talk fluent gibberish to one another, affirming that they are the clever ones, not us. I'd really love to know how many of the class of the class of 2O24-5 are currently in employment, and doing what. You never know, there may be an unknown goldmine in Gibberish Studies.
I could explain the importance of every one of these research projects, but I'll need a million in grant funding for the meta-analysis first.
Are you suggesting that MY PhD thesis: “Anxiety in the University—Gender Obsession’s intersectionality with un(queer)institutional naval gazing and the pan-societal rejection of the Academe”, might be total bollocks?
I looked up Lauren Willcox, all I can say is that she's supremely qualified to be supervising such research projects. Unfortunately, supremely unqualified for anything else.
Unfortunately, this is not as innocent as it may appear, even if we take into account that funding, and in many cases substantial funding, is diverted towards such studies.
Jason Arday's despicable appointment was likely to have been facilitated by one such PhD candidate. After all, the Faculty of Education enlightened us that it had "listened to the voices of our Black scholars and our Black students".
It may not be entirely fair to call out those who, owing to their student status at Cambridge, were removed from the actual appointment process. However, the student lobby does stand behind that appointment (as well as the well-documented hounding of, and termination of the positions of, other professors and academic staff due to the focus of their research) . And the scale of the Arday scandal, and its repercussions for so many people (including exceptional scholars from the Black community), would probably justify doing so.
https://www.cctl.cam.ac.uk/oscea/winners-2021/tyra-amofah-akardom
Tyra Amofah-Akardom was "in conversation" with Jason Arday as a moderator when he was invited to headline Cambridge University's 2020 Annual Race Equality Lecture. This alone suggests that Cambridge University's promotion of Jason Arday's credentials ("whitewashing") started well before he was appointed in 2023.
https://www.race-equality.admin.cam.ac.uk/events-archive/2020-annual-race-equality-lecture
Tyra Amofah-Akardom is now a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, the same Faculty that offered Jason Arday a Professorship. She also sits on the Steering Committee of the Black Advisory Hub, the likely lobbying group behind his appointment, as one of the two co-chairs, alongside Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, which offered Jason Arday a Fellowship.
https://www.hardingscholars.fund.cam.ac.uk/people/tyra-amofah-akardom
Her PhD is funded by the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholars Programme: “Disorientation and Reimagining Through Community: Black Women’s Activism at ‘Elite’ British and American Universities”. She notes that her research invokes “storytelling as a conceptual backdrop” and, by employing “a constellation of creative qualitative methods”, investigates “the ways that Black women within these institutions embody resistance along racialised, gendered, sexualised and classed lines, by utilising rage, love, and pleasure as political tools”.
That such a project should secure one of Cambridge’s most prestigious postgraduate scholarships speaks volumes about the environment in which it was conceived and funded.
This also helps to create a powerful ecosystem that, in the case of Jason Arday, propelled him to the top of the academic hierarchy. The primary reason for his downfall was arguably not even his outlandish falsehoods - no doubt, these would have been the essence of his lecture in 2020 hosted by Cambridge University Vice-Chancellor (!) - but rather, it was that Cambridge was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about his appointment and afforded him too much media exposure.
Thanks for this additional research. Perhaps Cambridge enabled a black power network within the colleges so that it had counter-examples to point to whenever it was accused of being elitist and racist. If so, it would not have mattered if that network produced little of value, or did not meet established academic standards. Cambridge clearly did not strive for black excellence, and that in itself is racist.
The same could be said for the Gender Studies crowd, a pre-emptive strike against potential accusations of queerphobia. I wonder if the whole point is to placate wealthy woke students, and ensure that they continue to chose Cambridge rather than the Ivy League. As such, this highly contestable research would be commissioned for marketing reasons, so that the non-binary offspring of the billionaire class keep topping up college endowments.
Cambridge does have form as a comfortable nest of pampered individuals with fringe political ideas that wouldn't survive contact with reality. It's why the University produced some of the most significant spies for the Soviet Union, embedded as they were within the British establishment.
Whence and when did this Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies spring up? There was no such thing (I’m almost 100% certain although my existence was in the rarefied Classics Department, far removed then from such guff) when I was an undergraduate way back when.
I've read it twice and still don't understand any of those things.
The rot goes so deep. I looked at her supervisor. Clearly the virus went airborne. She moved from Minnesota to supervise these charlatans.