A Cambridge University college has dismissed a researcher after uncovering evidence of his collaboration with far-right extremists, with the head of the college apologising “unreservedly” to students for the appointment.
St Edmund’s College announced it had terminated the post held by Noah Carl, who was at the centre of protests earlier this year after being named as the college’s Toby Jackman Newton Trust junior research fellow.
Carl’s appointment prompted complaints from students and staff that his writings on race and intelligence helped “legitimise racist stereotypes”, with more than 1,000 people signing an open letter attacking Carl’s publications.
A special investigation panel appointed by the college upheld the complaints and said Carl “had put a body of work into the public domain that did not comply with established criteria for research ethics and integrity”.
Matthew Bullock, the master of St Edmund’s, said in a statement: “The panel found that in the course of pursuing this problematic work, Dr Carl had collaborated with a number of individuals who were known to hold extremist views.
Carl was previously a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and attended the London Conference on Intelligence, where “race intelligence” and eugenics were discussed. After news of the closed-doors meeting emerged, University College London said it would bar the conference from using its facilities in future.
In March, the Canadian academic Jordan Peterson announced he was to be an unpaid visiting fellow at Cambridge’s divinity school this summer, but the offer was later rescinded after an outcry among students and faculty members.
Source: The Guardian
