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A few days ago it was reported that 300 staff and students at Ghent University signed a petition demanding that Nathan Cofnas be removed from his position as a researcher in the university’s Department of Philosophy and Moral Science. The petition reflects a familiar pattern in contemporary academia: scholars who explore controversial questions are increasingly treated not as participants in debate but as targets for exclusion. The controversy surrounding Cofnas therefore says as much about the climate of academic discourse as it does about the subject of his research. (more…)