{"id":2949,"date":"2025-11-19T18:44:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T18:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:01:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:01:40","slug":"the-sex-gargoyles-of-oxford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2949","title":{"rendered":"Sex Gargoyles of Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A brutal article by journalist Katherine Griffiths<\/a> is just out in Bloomberg<\/a>, exposing the utter failure of Oxford University to deal with harassment and bullying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven women have alleged rapes or sexual assaults across the university in the past five years, while more than 30 described direct experiences of sustained harassment or bullying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article exposes whatever everyone in academia knows. Powerful male academics in senior positions can carry out abuse and repeated acts of misconduct for many years, protected by senior management or Human Resources. Those who speak out face serious personal or professional repercussions. They are retaliated against.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Soumitra Dutta recently resigned as Head of the Said Business School after the University upheld three allegations that he harassed a female academic, as already discussed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a few weeks after Dutta\u2019s abrupt exit, another senior figure in the university also left his post. John Tasioulas<\/a> \u2014 a prominent scholar of moral and legal philosophy \u2014 submitted his resignation as director of Oxford\u2019s Institute for Ethics in AI in September 2025. He had been under investigation by the university since April following allegations of harassment. Tasioulas denies the allegations, and was allowed to leave quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This happens because reputation is put above ethics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Generous funding means leaders at Oxford and academic rival Cambridge University are particularly keen to protect the universities\u2019 reputations, according to Wyn Evans<\/a>, a Cambridge professor who leads the 21 Group, which campaigns against bullying and harassment in academia. \u201cThey don\u2019t want their powerful brands besmirched in the eyes of any donors,\u201d he said. [Katherine Griffiths, Bloomberg]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to Bloomberg, the Professorial gropers congregate in New College, which has at least four Fellows implicated in serious misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three are unnamed, but the fourth is Professor Miles Hewstone<\/a>. According to Bloomberg, Hewstone arrived uninvited at women\u2019s residences and dropped his trousers, touched women inappropriately, made remarks about pursuing relationships with colleagues and students, offered gifts that created a sense of obligation, and — when confronted about his behaviour — referred to himself jocularly as a \u201cbad boy<\/em>“. This is behaviour more suited to a “Carry On<\/em>” film than academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s always hushed up by Colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Individual colleges also look to donors for their own funding. As a result, \u201ccolleges maintain a code of silence over bad behavior,\u201d the 21 Group\u2019s Evans said. \u201cIt is like the mafia with its omerta.\u201d [Katherine Griffiths, Bloomberg]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Katherine Griffiths deserves a lot of credit for this article. Journalists exposing misbehaviour at Oxford or Cambridge regularly get sent threatening or aggressive letters by lawyers like Carter-Ruck who specialise in “reputation management”. These are, scandalously, paid for by public funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s good to see it does not work. Oxford deserves to be pilloried for its repeated failures in dealing with sexual harassment, just as Cambridge does for bullying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image of the gargoyle is courtesy of Chris Creagh, licensed under licensed under Creative Commons here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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