American academics protest Hungary’s gender studies ban

Henry Reichman, Professor Emeritus California State University, East Bay has published an article on the Academe Blog (the blog of Academe magazine) about the Hungarian government’s proposal that gender studies courses may no longer be offered in Hungary. The blog also published a protest letter addressed to Mr. József Bódis, Hungarian State Secretary. Prof. Reichman has raised some interesting issues and we republish his letter with the permission of the Managing Editor of Academe. (Click here to read Academe Blog.)

*

Henry Reichman

Letter to Hungarian Minister of State for Education

Yesterday the following letter was sent to József Bodis, Hungarian Minister of State for Education:

Dear Minister of Education,

We write to protest the Hungarian government’s proposed law which would cancel an accredited, well-performing MA program, with consistently high enrollments. Never before has the government sought to legislate the curriculum of universities without consultation with appropriate university institutions. According to The Hungarian Journal, “the part of the amendment which concerns gender studies provides no explanation whatsoever. Two universities are concerned: Hungary’s biggest state-funded university ELTE, and the Central European University. If the amendment becomes official, it will mean that nobody can attend gender studies courses in Hungary and get a degree in the subject.” It also sets a dangerous precedent for state intervention in all other university courses. By denying to faculty and administrators the academic freedom that is the guarantee of the autonomy of higher education, the Hungarian government puts itself outside the community of democratic nations. We call upon the Minister of Education to refuse this amendment. We also call upon the European Union, of which Hungary is a member nation, to condemn this action as a violation of its principles. And we call upon academic institutions in our own countries to join our protest.

Joan W. Scott
Professor Emerita
School of Social Science
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ
and Member, Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, American Association of University Professors

Peter Goddard
Former Director and Professor Emeritus
School of Natural Sciences
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton NJ

Henry Reichman
Professor Emeritus
California State University, East Bay
Chair, Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure, AAUP

Lynn Pasquerella
President
American Association of Colleges and Universities
Washington, DC

Copies have been sent to:

European Union officials:
sue.pavis@eua.be, info@eua.be ,
maria.kelo@enqa.eu, secretariat@enqa.eu

Hungarian ambassador to the US
informacio.was@mfa.gov.hu

American ambassador to Hungary
CulturalAffairsBudapest@state.gov

**

Hungary Seeks to Ban Gender Studies

Earlier this week Hungarian universities received 24 hours from the Ministry of Human Capacities and the Ministry of Justice to comment on a proposed amendment, which declares that gender studies courses may no longer be offered in Hungary, the Hungarian economic and political weekly Heti Világgazdaság (HVG.hu) reported yesterday. According to a report in Hungary Journal, “the part of the amendment which concerns gender studies provides no explanation whatsoever. Two universities are concerned: Hungary’s biggest state-funded university ELTE, and the Central European University, founded by George Soros. If the amendment becomes official, it will mean that nobody can attend gender studies courses in Hungary and get a degree in the subject.”

The government’s rationale is that the discipline is “economically irrational” because there are no jobs in Hungary for graduates in the field. According to the ministry, gender studies takes resources from other courses and harms the economic stability of the universities. Members of the government say gender studies is an ideology, not science.

Ironically, I first heard of the ban from a posting on the notorious right-wing website, Breitbart News, not usually considered a friend of academic freedom. Nevertheless, they argue, “Conservatives should be concerned about the precedent this sets considering their limited influence on academia. Not only does the decision risk making gender studies an intellectual forbidden fruit, progressive governments could use this decision as a catalyst to restrict conservative and libertarian thought in classrooms around the globe in the future.”

The point is well taken. But I hope that Breitbart and others of its ilk will join those many principled academic conservatives who have already recognized the dangers in American efforts to eliminate or reduce programs in a wide range of humanistic disciplines, including gender studies (for example, at Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Wisconsin-Superior), a development decried by the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) in a joint statement issued May 31. That statement noted that, like the authoritarian nationalist Orban regime in Hungary, American “politicians have proposed linking tuition to the alleged market value of given majors. Students majoring in literature, art, philosophy, and history are routinely considered unemployable in the technology and information economy, despite the fact that employers in that economy strenuously argue that liberal arts majors make great tech-sector workers precisely because they are trained to think critically and creatively, and to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.”

Henry Reichman

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *