Not until 20 January, but I thought I would do my first post about it now - my 70th birthday tribute concert to Christopher Fox - my first CD released, back in 1998, was of his music. www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

London-based lecturer Michael Ben-Gad tells free speech conference: 'They put me in what they think is an IDF uniform, but it was an Air Force major’s uniform'

The Gaza genocide libel: the Big Lie to delegitimise Israel

The targeting of Israeli Professor Michael Ben-Gad: Britain’s academic freedom crisis www.thejc.com/opinion/the-...

My article for The Jewish Chronicle on the Michael Ben-Gad affair, how it emerged and how the response was coordinated, and how it is indicative of wider issues: academic freedom, attempts by far-left activists to censor anyone who disagrees with them, and so on. www.thejc.com/opinion/the-...

Also a great paper from Eddy Campbell on the influence of piobaireachd on Boulez, which was explicit, especially relating to the idea of subsuming a line in grace notes.

During Boulez’s tenure at the New York Philharmonic, one disgruntled letter and Boulez’s response. From a great paper in Edinburgh by Gabryel Smith.

At the impressive Institut Français d’Ecosse for #Boulez symposium, introduced by Eddie Campbell. Great to participate in panel on Pli selon pli with Larson Powell, @ianpace.bsky.social & Michael Spitzer

A new and extremely positive review of my latest Finnissy piano music set. www.britishmusicsociety.co.uk/2025/10/mich...

This week's appalling attacks on Professors Alice Sullivan and Michael Ben-Gad are the tip of the iceberg. They emerge from a culture of impunity on the progressive left - which believes itself above the law, and has too often been permitted to act accordingly. www.edrith.co.uk/p/the-progre...

Universities have obligation to ensure staff can express their views freely Universities have obligation to protect safety of staff What is happening is bullying & harassment of Prof Ben-Gad This is true whether or not one agrees with his views www.standard.co.uk/news/educati...

The Royal Economic Society is deeply concerned by reports that an academic economist has been publicly harassed at a London university because they are Israeli. Read our full statement here: bit.ly/4oAEUaf

I was pleased to speak to Times Radio on the antisemitic campaign against Professor Michael Ben-Gad, listen from 1.25. @sriucl.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ioe.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/radio/show/2...

The situation has escalated since the letter was written, with activists disrupting Michael's lecture earlier this week and making murderous threats. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Today is the last day for signing: we will close it at 17:00 UK time. Please do sign if you haven’t already done so.

The Head of the Department of Economics, Professor Emmanouil Mentzakis, has issued a statement condemning the recent harassment directed at Professor Michael Ben-Gad and reaffirming the values of mutual respect, open debate, and academic freedom. Full statement: www.linkedin.com/posts/emmano...

Solidarity with Michael Ben-Gad.

Das MullahPropagandamedium PressTV auf X beim anmoderieren der IntifadaHassAktion. Keine Lust das live hier zu verbreiten. Geht auf den Link oder sucht es woanders. Zu PressTV de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_TV /4 x.com/PressTV/stat...

Der Text des SoliBriefes legt nahe, dass die Kampagne schon länger dauert. Ein iranisch staatsunterstützendes Medium überträgt die Aktion. Iran hat ähnlich wie Russland ein großes Interesse Demokratien zu destabilisieren, auch durch MitOrchestrierung dieser Kampagnen/3 bsky.app/profile/ianp...

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... /2

Maskierte störten Unterricht des EconomieProfessor Michael BenGad und brüllten ihm - Das Übliche- entgegen. BenGad, Israeli hat seinen Wehrdienst vor Jahrzehnten abgeleistet. btw Video wird von PressTV einem StaatsOutlet des Irans verbreitet (Grund ist klar) z Glück umfangreiche Soli s.u. /1

Please share this letter in support of the City University professor of economics Michael Ben-Gad, who is receiving death threats and harassment, as part of an ongoing campaign to have him sacked owing to his having completed compulsory IDF service 1982-1985.

Open letter in support of Prof Michael Ben-Gad, City University London, targeted and harassed by “students” in a protest group, for no other reason than pure anti-semitism - for being an Israeli Jew. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Professor Michael Ben-Gad at City St George’s, University of London, has been subject to a vicious harassment campaign because he, an Israeli citizen, studied, taught and worked in Israel, and served in the IDF (as all Jewish Israelis must). Please read and sign this. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Alice Sullivan, a leading gender-critical researcher, has been shortlisted for the 2025 Maddox Prize for her landmark review into how sex is recorded in publicly funded research. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky https://ow.ly/7vkp50X4ztK

One week until my talk on #Satie at Berwick Literary Festival! 6 October, 7.30 pm in the Straw Yard, booking link here: www.maltingsberwick.co.uk/whats-on/blf...

More than other Britpop bands, Oasis still resemble what they did in the 90s. Their appeal today represents a nostalgia for more optimistic times than the uncertainty and economic decline of today, when the flag could be celebrated. I am quoted in here. www.independent.co.uk/arts-enterta...

Today, Métier presents a “monumental” (The Wire) 4-disc box set from pianist Ian Pace in commanding performances of music by composer Michael Finnissy (b. 1946). On all platforms today at https://listn.fm/finnissypiano

‘Some close reading persisted, but many critics favoured contextual explanations or speculative hermeneutics aligned with ideological agendas, often in a censorious key reminiscent of Zhdanov, the true father of cancel culture.’ More on anti-formalism. cafeamericainmag.com/the-persecut...

Part 2 of my formalism article for Café Américain:: ‘Formalism studies art as *art*, not merely as a window onto something else… renewed formalism can return literature, art, music, film, dance, and media to those who care about and are fascinated by them.’ cafeamericainmag.com/the-persecut...

‘The reduction of all to the “political” leaves little place for a private life, private thoughts, desires, fears, and beyond… And crucially, no place for the sort of privacy about one’s political views which are the essence of secret ballots’ thecritic.co.uk/academia-mus...

Last year, academics Alexandra Wilson and Michael Bronstein faced major academic pile-ons when they dared to suggest that teaching and research could have some autonomy from politics. A great many academics take the Zhdanovite view ‘everything is political’. thecritic.co.uk/academia-mus...

‘It was claimed that Leninism dictated that magazines “cannot be apolitical”, and that any attempts to be so were “harmful to the interests of the Soviet people” […] Theater’s only permitted role was “as an active propagandist of the policy of the Soviet state”’ cafeamericainmag.com/the-persecut...

‘Today, however, in schools, universities, publishers, arts organizations, media, strong tendencies first and foremost to remove, denounce, and censor art show the dominant influence … not of Shklovsky, Propp, Meyerhold or even Bakhtin, but of Zhdanov.’ cafeamericainmag.com/the-persecut...

In Café Américain, the first part of my article on formalism and anti-formalism in the Soviet Union, and Andrei Zhdanov as the father of modern cancel culture. cafeamericainmag.com/the-persecut...

Enjoying new Michael Finnissy piano box set from @ianpace.bsky.social - there’s a lot of emotional & pianistic variety in the pieces @first-inversion.com

Part one of new article in Café Américain on Soviet anti-formalist campaigns and the Russian formalist movement which preceded them, as precedent for contemporary cancel culture. Part 2 will consider parallel formalist movements elsewhere. cafeamericainmag.com/the-persecut...

"The contemporary economics of higher education encourages strategies to attract as many students as possible and ensure they cannot fail." www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/resp...

People on here should read this. open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...

Nicely argued by @ianpace.bsky.social. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/resp...

Pausing the Research Excellence Framework amid concerns over its controversial environment section could signal the start of more fundamental shift away from an institutional focus on equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, say experts. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #EDI #academicsky

Pausing the REF amid concerns over its controversial environment section could signal the start of more fundamental shift away from an institutional focus on EDI initiatives, say experts www.timeshighereducation.com/news/could-r... via @jgro-the.bsky.social

Hear, hear! "quality concerns cannot be sacrificed on the altar of student satisfaction. " www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/resp...

'The trouble is that such experiments will inevitably run up against universities’ interest in maximising measurable student satisfaction. The contemporary economics of higher education encourages strategies to attract as many students as possible and ensure they cannot fail.' Important point.

Five paragraphs of quotations from me here on the pause to the REF and how the proposed reweighting of PCE reflects a sector trying to accommodate those distinguished by ideology rather than research excellence. @timeshighered.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/news/could-r...

Reversing some recent trends in use of AI in teaching and learning is sure to generate mixed responses from students. Regulators must step in, says @ianpace.bsky.social #academicsky #AI

I just watched the full video of the murder of Iryna Zarutska… and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same. Horrible. I couldn’t breathe. How can this even happen? People, what are we doing? Why? 🕯️ Rest in peace, Iryna. I have no words… only pain. But I know one thing — we must have justice.

Really important response to the pausing of the REF by @profalices.bsky.social Hard-hitting points on the real danger this would use particular EDI measures to judge research on the basis of ideological conformity rather than excellence. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/refs...

At least two universities have revised academic job adverts after pressure from free speech campaigners, marking one of the first tangible effects of new legislation in England, reports @tashmosheim.bsky.social #academicsky #freespeech