Professor Sasha Roseneil
Professor Sasha Roseneil, the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex, has said that the values of academic freedom, lawful freedom of speech, and of diversity are fundamentally entwined.
Writing for Times Higher Education, one month after starting at the University as its first woman Vice-Chancellor, Professor Roseneil said: "universities rest upon, and must fundamentally seek to uphold, the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech and expression within the law". She has underpinned the importance of universities embracing diversity and inclusion, saying: "universities have to value and cultivate diversity: they have to seek, proactively and strenuously, to create an inclusive culture, in which differences in background, belief, experience and identity are embraced, and are understood as essential to the work of advancing discovery and learning in a diverse and complex world."
In the article, Professor Roseneil highlighted the University's rich history in this regard, saying: "Sussex has, throughout its sixty years, been animated by an exceptional and distinctive spirit of intellectual freedom and challenge and, simultaneously, by a profound commitment to advancing equality and social justice."
Professor Roseneil pointed to Sussex's legacy in relation in South Africa, saying: "Inspired by the struggles of their South African fellow students, the Sussex student body became a long-term collective actor in the global movement against Apartheid, mobilising the freedom of speech and expression available in the UK to campaign for similar freedoms for Black South Africans." And, acknowledging the poignancy of the moment just weeks after the violent attack on author Salman Rushdie, Professor Roseneil cited the 2001 exhibition, 'Subversion and Censorship', in which books and images that had been deemed too shocking or subversive for public consumption were put on open display, welcoming "the penchant for cultural challenge for which Sussex had become known".
This summer has also seen the launch of the University's updated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, "Inclusive Sussex". This is online on the new Inclusive Sussex webpages which highlight the work the University is doing to meet our five Inclusive Sussex goals.
The full text of Professor Roseneil's opinion article can be see here.
