{"id":3528,"date":"2026-04-18T07:31:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T06:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3528"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T06:54:25","slug":"love-sex-and-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=3528","title":{"rendered":"Love, Sex and Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Recent disclosures in The Times<\/a><\/em> and Daily Telegraph<\/a><\/em> concerning Simon Goldhill must have come as little surprise in King’s College or the Classics Faculty at Cambridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His pattern of conduct extended over many years \u2014 arguably decades \u2014 and was widely recognised among colleagues. It was remarked by a Fellow of King’s that any eventual wave of accountability, such as that associated with the #MeToo movement in 2017, would inevitably result in his downfall. This did not happen and Simon continued to act with relative impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2000s, Simon held a leading role in overseeing research governance at King\u2019s, notably through the election of Junior Research Fellows. At that time, decision-making did not appear to operate through a formal committee structure; instead, it involved a small group of Simon’s close associates. Prof Peter de Bolla<\/a>\u00a0(English) and\u00a0Prof Christopher Prendergast<\/a> (French) both exercised enormous influence informally.\u00a0Without Simon’s enthusiastic endorsement, \u00a0a Junior Research Fellow at King’s was unlikely to prosper. Those who challenged Simon were often perceived to have paid a professional price, in some cases leaving academia altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon’s inappropriate or aggressive behaviour towards those in subordinate positions was neither subtle nor concealed. It was apparent to anyone who spent even a short time in his presence. Everyone at King’s College or the Classics Faculty knew this. In earlier years, several individuals with whom he had close relationships were subsequently elevated as academic prot\u00e9g\u00e9s and advanced through appointments and promotions. Despite this, a culture of silence prevailed. This was sustained by the collective inaction which prevailed at King’s, ostensibly a College proud of its self-declared radicalism. Simon was just too big to challenge. Such was the security of his position that he was able to put himself forward for the Provostship \u2014 the Mastership of the college \u2014 and to attract significant support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent complaint of sexual impropriety brought by a university student is therefore best understood not as an isolated incident, but as a visible fragment of a much larger and longer-standing problem at King’s and in the University more widely. The names of many sex harassers are well known, it’s just action is not taken against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldhill has also been active in the Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation, where he continues to hold a leadership role. Given the congregation\u2019s substantial student membership and social setting, this raises further and legitimate concerns in light of what has now emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only surprising thing about the matter is that Simon Goldhill was exposed, after a Cambridge University investigation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cover up is ‘baked into’ the DNA of the University. Its desire for containment and discretion is well known, and such a public fall from grace is highly unusual. For an institution as skilled in dark arts as Cambridge, this would have been trivial to cover up. Simon is retiring at the end of this year when he reaches 69. All that was needed was to delay a little longer, then Simon is no longer employed by the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this outcome has occurred with the backing, or at least the acceptance, of influential figures. The handling of the matter has borne the hallmarks of a coordinated and carefully managed process. Perhaps the most interesting question of all is how, and why, this has now happened? Who orchestrated this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent disclosures in The Times and Daily Telegraph concerning Simon Goldhill must have come as little surprise in King’s College or the Classics Faculty at Cambridge. His pattern of conduct extended over many years \u2014 arguably decades \u2014 and was widely recognised among colleagues. It was remarked by a Fellow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3528"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3536,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions\/3536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}