Niks meer missen?
Schrijf je in voor onze nieuwsbrief!
international

Students launch petition against interdisciplinary social science lecturer

Dirk Wolthekker,
31 januari 2023 - 13:08

In an open letter to the UvA administration and the UvA community, three students today filed a petition calling for action against the views of ISW lecturer Laurens Buijs. The lecturer has since called in sick “after an unsuccessful conversation with the CvB,” according to an internal letter to students.

Students Raisa Mulder, Jet Waterman and Lu Stoisser took a stand today in an open letter to the Executive Board and the university community against the views of ISW lecturer Laurens Buijs. Two weeks ago, he wrote an incendiary article on the opinion page of Folia taking a stand against what he sees as the “woke culture” within the social sciences. Among other things, he wrote, “I see the phenomenon of ‘non-binary’ and the accompanying obsession with pronouns as empty hype.” The three students didn’t accept this and during the day posted the open letter, including the petition, online.

 

Denial

Among other things, the three write that Buijs “misuses platforms such as his own blog and Twitter to spread hateful remarks against non-binary individuals. According to them, in this way he “denies the identity of a group of students and teachers.” In the open letter, the students write further: “We do not accept a denial of the lived reality of non-binary individuals, who identify outside the binary gender male or female. It is difficult to be non-binary in a world strongly structured according to the gender binarity male-female. Non-binary people at UvA find that many faculty, students, and staff do not know how to create a safe (learning) environment for non-binary people.”

There is “a lack of safety” for non-binary people at the UvA, according to the students. “Buijs’ claims about non-binary people contribute to such a climate and actively work against their safety at the UvA.” The UvA claims on its website to be committed to inclusion and anti-discrimination but does not live up to that commitment, according to the students. “To deliver on this promise to non-binary people, we ask the UvA to take an active role in supporting the rights of non-binary people.” Among other things, the students demand that students who are uncomfortable with Buijs’ lectures “suffer no consequences.”

 

Sick leave

It seems the students got their way today: Buijs has called in sick, he announced in an internal message to students. He writes that he felt compelled to do so “after a failed conversation with the CvB.” He writes that he wanted to protect himself “from the aggression of administrators, staff, and students of the UvA.” From his “sickbed,” he calls on his students to take notice of what is going on at the UvA. “In my view, the social sciences have been hijacked by a very toxic body of thought that has invaded all the programs and the administration.” Earlier, the UvA announced it would launch an investigation into this issue.