Jack
Jack
@jackheinemann.bsky.social
Academic writing in academic space about science, biotechnology, academic freedom in personal capacity or as consistent with the lawful use of academic freedom, but not the view of my employer.
"liberal and authoritarian governments are increasingly taking pages from each other’s playbooks to damage democratic institutions, including the higher education sector" www.scholarsatrisk.org/resources/fr... new from Scholars At Risk
Free to Think 2024 | Scholars at Risk
Free to Think 2024 is the ninth installment of an annual report by SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project and looks at 391 attacks on higher education communities around the world.
www.scholarsatrisk.org
October 8, 2024 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Jack
I was on the radio this morning here in NZ talking a bit about #phages and antibiotics! www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...
Fighting antibiotic resistance
How can phages, the viruses of bacteria, be used to reduce agrichemical and antibiotic use? Dr Heather Hendrickson explains.
www.rnz.co.nz
October 5, 2024 at 5:33 AM
Calling for universities to be "politically neutral" is a way to suppress academic freedom, not promote it. If you own the politics in power, university silence isn't neutral.

teu.ac.nz/campaigns/ac...
Tertiary Education Union – Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa | Political neutrality is contrary to academic freedom
<p data-block-key="6h9ee">Blog by Jack Heinemann</p>
teu.ac.nz
October 3, 2024 at 7:57 PM
My new blog on the conflict between political neutrality (which is a nonsense anyway) and university academic freedom.
teu.ac.nz/campaigns/ac...
Tertiary Education Union – Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa | Political neutrality is contrary to academic freedom
<p data-block-key="6h9ee">Blog by Jack Heinemann</p>
teu.ac.nz
October 3, 2024 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Jack
Not quite how I was hoping to be published in Nature but I’m going to call this a win anyway 😂 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Microbiologist wins case against university over harassment during COVID
Court finds University of Auckland breached obligations to protect Siouxsie Wiles while she provided public information about the pandemic. Court finds University of Auckland breached obligations to p...
www.nature.com
July 12, 2024 at 7:32 PM
Our new paper a joint effort with the Agapito-Tenfen group.
Norway-Brazil-New Zealand

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Predicted multispecies unintended effects from outdoor genome editing
CRISPR/Cas9, a potent genetic engineering tool widely adopted in agriculture, is capable of introducing new characteristics into plants on a large sca…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 13, 2024 at 1:22 AM
The Press
www.thepress.co.nz
July 11, 2024 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Jack
The Siouxsie Wiles judgment should be a wake-up call for New Zealand’s universities
The Siouxsie Wiles judgment should be a wake-up call for New Zealand’s universities
'The fact she had to take her university to court to force it to take her concerns seriously should trigger some serious soul-searching.'
thespinoff.co.nz
July 9, 2024 at 11:22 PM
"the meaning of 'progressive' has shifted from someone who wants a more just society to someone who simply wants to preserve democracy." it isn't universities that lean left, it is a society that has lurched to the right.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
America’s problem is massive inequality – not ‘woke’ educated elites | Robert Reich
Fake populists like Elise Stefanik (Harvard ’06) and Josh Hawley (Yale ’06) attack higher ed to protect corporations and the rich
www.theguardian.com
June 11, 2024 at 9:48 PM
academic freedom attacks in the US are "the outgrowth of efforts by right-wing and libertarian think tanks...to manufacture a culture-war backlash against educators and academic institutions." www.aaup.org/sites/defaul... Here too?
www.aaup.org
May 30, 2024 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Jack
I really, seriously don’t wanna be a jerk but academics need to stop talking about “academic freedom” and start talking about “administrative harassment” or “political bullying” or something

Use words other people understand and have sympathy for
May 25, 2024 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Jack
Every day around the world, scientists are being abused and harassed online. They are being attacked on social media and by e-mail, telephone, letter and in person. Nature reports on the debate on how to support and protect them. go.nature.com/3VawBpJ 🧪
Harassment of scientists is surging — institutions aren’t sure how to help
As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, there is debate about how to support and protect them. As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, the...
go.nature.com
May 23, 2024 at 8:09 PM
"less than 1% of the respondents in the UKÄ survey answer that the so-called cancel culture is a problem. Instead, the analysis finds that political itchy fingers and the system for research funding are regarded as the big threats to academic freedom” www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...
Biggest threats to academic freedom are political – Report
Over half of higher education academics surveyed in an investigation conducted by the Swedish Higher Education Authority recently indicated that they ...
www.universityworldnews.com
May 23, 2024 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Jack
#IDthought 5: Until the neoliberal era, inequality declined for some 60 years. From the 1980s onwards, it returned with a vengeance. Since 1989, America’s super-rich have grown about $21 trillion richer. The poorest 50 per cent, by contrast, have become $900 billion poorer.🧵
May 22, 2024 at 5:21 AM
Reposted by Jack
Abuse and harassment of scientists escalated during the pandemic, and has become the new status quo for science.
The challenge for institutions is how best to protect and support scientists who are being targeted.
I explored this question for Nature:
#Science #scientists #onlinesafety #covid19
Harassment of scientists is surging — institutions aren’t sure how to help
As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, there is debate about how to support and protect them. As researchers increasingly face many kinds of attack over their work, the...
www.nature.com
May 21, 2024 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Jack
Money for privatization of schools but not for school lunches or disability support, apparently.

The priorities of this government are pretty clear.
May 13, 2024 at 9:56 PM
"well-funded right-wing think tanks, media outlets, and partisan activists have spent considerable effort replacing one understanding of the university, as a place of critical thought and contestation, with an anodyne notion of 'free speech.' academeblog.org/2024/05/01/s...
Shafik Demonstrates the Banality of Current Discourses on Campus Free Speech
BY ISAAC KAMOLA In February I gave a talk at Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought, alongside colleagues discussing the question “Where is the University?” The panel was planned prior t…
academeblog.org
May 13, 2024 at 8:34 PM
"activism and political conflict—are normal in science, and in academic life more generally. That’s a theme that we like to emphasize when speaking in “defense” of student protest. It’s part of a storied tradition, it’s respectable, it’s normal."

www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Real Scandal of Campus Protest - Boston Review
It’s not that there has been too much student protest. It’s that there has not been much, much more of it.
www.bostonreview.net
May 11, 2024 at 5:20 AM
"We need to revive the true purpose of a college education, which is not just a credential or a job, but to produce graduates who are life-ready."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/blog...
Higher education’s forgotten aim and true purpose (opinion)
The misguided priorities of the contemporary university.
www.insidehighered.com
May 5, 2024 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Jack
What is the difference between free speech and university autonomy? Here Prof Jack Heinemann carefully sets out the differences in the New Zealand context - well worth a read www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/3502...
The Waikato Times
www.waikatotimes.co.nz
May 2, 2024 at 8:04 PM
Democracy falters when universities are afraid to speak truth to power

www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3502...
The Press
www.thepress.co.nz
May 2, 2024 at 7:22 PM
"universities only exist when students and faculty stand together, and when they do, they have power."
edition.cnn.com/2024/04/30/o...
Opinion: Student protests are what created the university as we know it | CNN
Seeing current campus protests unfold is a reminder that solidarity between protesting students and their teachers in medieval Europe was the origin of the modern-day university, write historians Davi...
edition.cnn.com
May 1, 2024 at 6:15 PM
April 26, 2024 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Jack
Operational manoeuvres in health. Hospitals have been instructed to save $105m by July. Minister says it won’t affect care.
My Stuff #cartoon today #HealthCare #NZpol
April 26, 2024 at 5:46 AM