#UCUstrikesBack Today I will share a thread about the dangerous and divisive impact of Prevent and of other surveillance measures in #HigherEducation #PreventingPrevent #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch #HigherEd #HEchat /1
https://twitter.com/abolish_prevent/status/1235116519538876418
The Prevent duty (UK) & the Professor Watchlist (US) & Education Watch (UK) have legitimated surveillance strategies intended to promote an “Us versus Them” divide between staff & students #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch /2
Prevent (UK), Professor Watchlist (US), & Education Watch (UK) target specific groups for surveillance under the banner of identifying those who are supposedly a threat to the nation. #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch /3
Under Prevent, students are under surveillance by uni staff. Through the Professor Watchlist & Education Watch, academic staff are under surveillance by their students #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch /4
Prevent, Professor Watchlist, Education Watch allow particular members of the academic community to be singled out, surveilled, & designated dangerous in different ways #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch /5
March 2015, after Prevent launched, a postgrad pursuing a master’s in counter-terrorism at Stafford University was reported & questioned under Prevent for reading the book Terrorism Studies in the uni library theguardian.com/education/2015… #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants /6
The university admitted fault & apologised after a *3 month* investigation of the incident. However, the damage had been done & he chose not to return to his studies #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants /7
He spoke abt being a target for reading a book:"The implications if I did not challenge this could be serious for me. I could go on a police list, I could be investigated without my knowledge. This could happen to any young Muslim lad. I had to fight back" #StudentsNotSuspects /8
In the same year he was interrogated for reading a book, Katie Hopkins published the infamously extremist, racist, & Islamophobic column “Rescue boats? I’d use gunships to stop migrants” in a newspaper w/ a readership of 2million #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants /9
The House of Commons & the House of Lords called for Joint Committee on Human Rights to launch an inquiry into freedom of speech in universities. Evidence was submitted, hearings were held, & a 71-page report was published in 2018 publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201719/jt… /10
The potential chilling effect of and threat to academic freedom posed by the Prevent duty on certain students’ freedom of speech in the United Kingdom was noted in the report #HigherEducation #PreventingPrevent #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants /11
"The fear of being reported for organising or attending an event, combined with the increased levels of bureaucracy following the introduction of the Prevent duty, is reported to be having a “chilling effect”. ... We repeat our call for an independent review of Prevent"/12
..."This review should include consideration of its impact on free speech in universities particularly on Muslim students but also on students of other faiths or no religious faiths" (2018:5) /13
Gilmore (2017:515): @ucu & @nusuk have raised concerns that Prevent "is inherently discriminatory towards Muslim students, & will sever relationship of trust ... between staff & students, legitimise Islamophobia & lead to normalisation of racist views" tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… /14
Yancy "The list (Prof Watchlist) is not simply designed to get others to spy on us, to out us, but to install forms of psychological self-policing to eliminate thoughts, pedagogical approaches and theoretical orientations that it defines as subversive" nytimes.com/2016/11/30/opi… /15
Surveillance under Prevent, Professor Watchlist, & Education Watch: "Academics & students who are already subjected to systemic prejudice are more easily assumed suspect, more easily seen as the 'dangerous' type, more easily constructed as 'Them'" peterlang.com/view/978143316… /16
Those 'Us' engaged in surveillance get to play the part of victim as they claim their own freedom of speech is under attack. Sørensen (2017:140): "Those who benefit from the status quo seldom find much reason to engage in dialogue until they are forced to do so" ... /17
... "They resist with all possible means, including devaluing the activists as persons and their motives, reframing what the action is about, and using all official and unofficial sanctions at their disposal" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111… /18
Gibney: "Many of us, particularly outspoken, progressive women of color professors, have known for quite some time now that there is an organized conservative online apparatus in place to discredit and impugn those in the academy who dare to challenge institutional racism" /19
Gibney was added to Prof Watchlist because of an incident in 2013 when two white students submitted a formal complaint against her because she had been “talking about structural racism in class” insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/2… /20
Hassan: "Am I student or a suspect? ... Under current legislation I would fall into both categories. Not because I’ve engaged in any illegal, dishonest or unpleasant actions. No. It’s because I am a student that just happens to be Muslim" ... huffingtonpost.co.uk/yusuf-hassan/p… /21
... "As students, academics and activists, we need to make our stance clear & challenge this noxious piece of legislation. ... If we work together I can return to being Yusuf Hassan the student, not a suspect" #StudentsNotSuspects huffingtonpost.co.uk/yusuf-hassan/p… /22
Ferber recounted two quotes in her remarks from her presidential address to the Sociologists for Women in Society, published “Are You Willing to Die for This Work?” Public Targeted Online Harassment in Higher Education ... journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117… /23
“[I’m] not gonna let them win, not gonna let them break me. ... You have to ask yourself, are you willing to die for this work?”
“I think about it [safety] now, I never had to before ... and you know, if I go down doing this, that’s an okay way to go.” /24
“I think about it [safety] now, I never had to before ... and you know, if I go down doing this, that’s an okay way to go.” /24
Through Prevent, Professor Watchlist, & Education Watch, in what ways have we become complacent, compliant, complicit in Othering our fellow community members in #HigherEducation? #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch /25
How can we better collectively resist these dangerous divisions, to demand that we are #EducatorsNotInformants #StudentsNotSuspects, to stand up against the mechanisms that designate some as threatening Others? #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch #HigherEducation /26
#HigherEducation #PreventingPrevent #StudentsNotSuspects #EducatorsNotInformants #TrollProfWatchlist #TrollEducationWatch #HigherEd #HEchat /27
@threadreaderapp unroll please
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