Spurned Sussex University lecturer Professor Kathleen Stock revealed she has been invited to join a new ‘free speech’ university in the US, described as a place for ‘witches who refuse to burn’.
Analytic Philosophy expert Dr. Janet Sullivan confirmed her acceptance of the University of Austin’s invitation to join the Founding Faculty Fellows program.
This was her first interview on television since retiring from transphobia. In which she stated that she was protecting women and warning against policies allowing men to self-identify as women.
Confirming she had been invited to join the new ‘free speech’ university, she wrote: ‘Delighted to be invited to be a Founding Faculty Fellow of the University of Austin, a new initiative announced today by @bariweiss alongside several other stellar individuals.’
“I accepted it with all my heart. It is an intriguing project with a focus on free inquiry.
To clarify, ‘PSI should also add that this does not mean I’m moving from Texas to Austin. This is not a permanent position. It’s a way to get involved from the UK.
Ex-reporter Bari Weiss, who announced the new initiative said Austin University would welcome witches refusing to burn.
Last month, Professor Stock faced death threats and was forced to resign from her position at Sussex University.
Placards were erected on campus by a hate mob accusing her transphobia – something she strongly denies – due to her views about sex identity and gender.
She said earlier today that there is more than just feeling offended.
Although she expressed her regret for people being upset by her views, she said that these are important issues and needed to be discussed.
Prof Stock said that trans people send her letters denouncing hate speech and attacking her.
She stated that she was shocked by the way the writers attacked campaigning groups claiming to act under their banner and railed against the concept of self identification.
This comes just after ministers were told that the Bill of free speech needs a Stock amendment to protect academics and students from being vicious.
Buckingham University vice-chancellor asked for the modification to avoid a repetition of what Kathleen Stock experienced.
After Prof Stock was accused of being transphobic, posters were posted warning institutions and revealing the law to safeguard academic free speech.
When Prof Stock was asked if her views were not liked by people, she replied that yes and I’m sorry.
“But I believe there are more issues at stake than people getting offended. We have to address some important issues concerning women, children and gays.
Also, she revealed that transgender people wrote to her complaining about the conditions in which they were placed and their views as hardcore activists.
She stated, “It’s important to be explicit. Trans people have written me saying they aren’t happy with the current situation.”
They don’t like the campaigns that are based on their names and think it has gone too far.
They don’t want their own ID and don’t feel it is right. Trans people, as one might imagine, are diverse individuals who can argue with one another. That’s why we ought to be able too.
Protesters erupted against then-Sussex University Professor Stock with a flurry of flares
Some students outraged by Prof Stock’s comments about gender, called for Professor Stock’s firing.
In the tunnel that runs from Falmer station up to the university, posters claiming Vile were put up by the victim claimed she made trans students unsafe.
Along with burning flares, banners stating “Stock Out”, were also held. Others attacked her online via the #ShameOnSussexUni hashtag.
James Tooley, Professor at Buckingham University claimed that the freedom of speech Bill would not stop another “concerted campaign” of intimidation similar to hers.
Students harassed Professor Stock, and he claimed it wouldn’t stop them.
The Telegraph reported that he said: “She was not told she couldn’t publish articles. She was still a Professor.
“But, there was an organized, coordinated and vile campaign by students and staff that in the end made it scary for her to leave her home and to do her job. She had to flee.”
His ‘Stock Amendment’, he believes, would permit academics to sue or complaint to universities if they are not protected from harassment.
Professor Tooley said over the weekend that there are two Conservative peers willing to support his amendment in House of Lords.
The Bill refers to ‘academic freedom’ for staff as ‘their freedom within the law and within their field of expertise — (a) to question and test received wisdom, and (b) to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing themselves at risk of being adversely affected in any of the ways described in subsection’.
These changes will see the Office for Students impose a legal obligation on institutions to encourage free speech at campus.
These universities could face investigation and be sanctioned or fined by the watchdog if they don’t comply with these guidelines.
Adam Tickell, Vice-Chancellor at Sussex University strongly supported Prof Stock’s “untrammelled” right to say what she thinks.
Meanwhile more than 200 academics from other universities signed a letter calling out the abuse from ‘trans activist bullies’.
Professor Stock stated on Twitter last month that she would be leaving her job and adding that “other institutions could learn from this”.
The students were not only spreading lies about me and harassing me… Many of my academic friends were also affected. KATHLEEN STOCK reveals how it felt to be mocked for believing after you were driven from Sussex University by a trans hate mob
About a month and a half ago, I was on my way to work. I am – or at least I was – a professor at Sussex University, and that day I was teaching classes in feminist philosophy.
In the past, my views regarding sex identity and gender were deemed embarrassing by Sussex.
This was despite the fact that I didn’t feel embarrassed by all of my bright, curious students who were constantly entering my class.
Kathleen Stock recently quit her position as Professor at Sussex University following controversy about her views regarding gender and transgender issues
I got off the train and joined the crowd walking through a tunnel to the university entrance – to find the walls were plastered with posters, each one screaming my name in bold capitals.
KATHLEEN STOCK MAKING STUDENTS UNSAFE. SUSSEX STILL PAYS FOR HER.
‘WE’RE NOT PAYING £9,250 A YEAR FOR TRANSPHOBIA, FIRE KATHLEEN STOCK.’
I struggled to breath and ran back to the station. A railway worker gave me water after seeing my condition. Later in the day I came across an Instagram account named Kathleen Stock, a transphobe. This photo showed people wearing balaclavas, with banners and flares reading ‘Stock Out’.
Website called me “spiteful bootlicker” and encouraged viewers to “get mad”. The anonymous authors said that I would be seen around until I was fired.
The Sussex University in which I worked as a junior lecturer is definitely not this one. In 2003, students were reluctant to accept any moral convictions.
They would insist that it was all relative.
This is a time of greater certainty, which can cause anxiety in inexperienced and young professionals.
In the past, my views wouldn’t have been considered controversial. We should all be free to discuss the demands of trans people that they recognize a person’s gender identity rather than biological sex.
Trans people are utterly hateful. They deserve protection against abuse.
We must look at these needs and, especially, the costs for women and girls.
Why should people born as men – who’ve never had a sex change operation – be given access to female changing rooms, for example? Refuges for women in domestic violence and women’s prisons.
Consider the impact on children’s health if they say that they want to switch genders but put themselves at risk of receiving irreversible medical treatment.
These topics interest me because I’m a teenage lesbian and have children. However, truth and freedom are important to me.
These are important issues that we need to discuss. I first started saying so three years ago. My surprise, many others including students and colleagues from Sussex disagreed with me.
My talks were the subject of protest. Official complaints were made against me and I was subject to disciplinary investigation. Students made demands to their bosses that I cease teaching feministism.
I was ‘no-platformed’ – disinvited from speaking in public – after protests. I was also denounced by academic colleagues, especially when an OBE was given to me last January.
This particular letter accuses me of being a transphobic fearmongering and helping to limit access to lifesaving medical treatment for trans persons. It also suggests that I have been promoting harassment of people of other genders.
All of this is far from true.
The campus security manager was concerned for my safety and advised me to use the emergency phone system. He also arranged for a spy hole installed in my office.
My book Material Girls, which I published in March 2017, was the catalyst for a new campaign against my character.
Even with all that, the vicious fury of these past weeks was something I couldn’t have imagined.
Only after the posters had been removed, did they reappear?
I spotted stickers on the walls and doors in my building talking about ‘the transphobic s*** that comes out of Kathleen Stock’s mouth’.
Demonstrations were held. I was warned by the police to increase my home security.
A University Open Day was disrupted by a hundred unidentified figures.
I was urged to leave by the ringleaders who made angry speeches, lit flares and wrote graffiti.
That is what I did a few more days later.
While it might be tempting to place the responsibility on students, we should also acknowledge that the ringleaders are often the ones who bear the most of the blame. However, things can get more complex than this.
It was revealed that not many of the people who were involved actually knew my opinions.
It was not known, however, that I supported transgender rights and have stated my support repeatedly.
My actual words seemed to be of no value to those who were enslaved by what are called ‘luxury beliefs.
Such frivolously held opinions can give the student protesters – often from privileged backgrounds – extra social status with their tribe.
Kathleen was once told that her views regarding sex identity and gender were embarrassing to Sussex in the past.
Don’t forget the expenses for those who are less wealthy.
A university worker removed a poster that was attacking me in anger and posted this question on social media: “Who serve you, transphobes? or students?”
What was it like to work for students since the beginning?
I was unaware that Stonewall and other lobby groups are causing more harm than good to trans people.
Some protesters said that they were’very transphobic’ when I was asked by the observers and had seen this on social media.
They had heard the same thing in lectures.
At Sussex, as I have long known to my cost, there exists a group of academic colleagues – none of them to my knowledge trans themselves – who are hell-bent on disseminating false claims that I am ‘transphobic’, which is to say a hater of trans people.
Over the past three years, this slur on my character has been repeated by colleagues in classes, in department meetings and – of course – on social media.
Students created a group on Facebook in 2019 to talk about ways to get me fired. Their academic peers posted messages of solidarity.
Three years ago, one person was churning tweets that contained the same boring message: “The views of Kathleen Stock make them a threat to all trans students at Sussex.” As the support emails from trans students prove, this is simply not true.
A former colleague of mine is writing this tweeting, saying that she will not be allowed to ‘completely account all the ways in which people from the institution assisted and abetted’ her.
Of course, ‘Here’ is actually me.
If supposedly responsible adults are acting so badly in public, can you blame young people following their lead?
It has had a debilitating effect on my life. It was difficult at times to get out from bed, and I had difficulty getting up.
It is clear that I am not having a problem.
However, no one should have to endure such a torture just to be able to speak their mind.
This has been a horrible message for students and lecturers at Sussex University. They should not be silent, or you will face the same fate.
This is an academic disaster for many universities.
Although its public statements about my departure are strong, they have also affirmed the importance of academic freedom. That’s a start. But Sussex now needs to do everything it can to fix the reputation damage and rebuild the trust of students and staff.
Stonewall is an influence on the university that takes a rigid line about gender identity and condemns any debate.
According to them, everyone should be able to decide their own gender using only their emotions.
PAINTED AS A VILLAIN: Kathleen Stock (left), a Sussex University professor, was forced to quit due to protests and graffiti from trans activists.
Sussex pays Stonewall, along with many other institutions, to be a “diversity champion”. Sussex even declared its desire to be included in the Stonewall Top 100 Employer Index for 2025.
The university will now be instructed by a lobby organization with extremist, unevidenced, and divisive views.
The Sussex Freedom of Information Requests show the depth of this intimate relationship.
They demonstrate that Stonewall has been an institution-wide leader. University management already has modified internal policies so that any references to biological sexual sex will be virtually invisible. It is a chilling experience for students and staff who disagree.
This means that I’m a transphobe when I state that males who pretend to be women on the basis only of their inner feelings should not be allowed to enter women’s prisons.
Also, I will say to children that talking therapy should not be used for drug abuse.
I know of many other academics who share my views and don’t mind expressing them. They are in desperate need of help. They’re losing the freedom to express themselves and their ideas, whether through bullying or self-censorship.
Argument and evidence are acceptable. No to witch-hunts or intimidation, even though they are claiming that it is providing a safe environment for all.
I can see it’s tempting to present campus life as a comforting cocoon – particularly when universities must compete for students. This can lead to ostracism for students who aren’t a good fit.
Social herd members who are part of the awkward team pose a serious threat. Herds are easy to lead, as it turns out. Sometimes they can become mobs.
Many bad ideas once seemed attractive until they were debunked by contrarians, eccentrics, heretics, naysayers, difficult women – and even down-the-line traditionalists. These people are vital to the intellectual community and life. These people should not be ignored.
Do not allow the mob to take advantage of the rest.