The New Intolerance on Campus

When speakers are banned on campus today, they are often accused of being intolerant – or bigoted. Whether it’s a far-right firebrand or an Islamist preacher, the charge that someone is intolerant of other religions and races, of women or homosexuals, is used as a justification to censor them. But who are the real intolerant ones? Those who wish to air their views – hateful or batty as they may be – or those who can’t tolerate hearing them?

At this unique, one-off conference – the first of its kind in the UK – spiked is bringing together world-renowned writers, academics and activists to interrogate the rise in campus censorship. With sessions on Safe Spaces, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, No Platforming and hate speech, we will explore if the New Intolerance on campus is producing a generation of intellectual bigots, young minds that would rather censor or boycott their opponents than argue with them.

Lunch is provided, followed by these three debates.

Sessions:

Safe Spaces: education or therapy?

BDS, bigotry and academic justice.

No Platform: should hate speech be free speech?

(Speakers TBA)

The conference will mark the launch of the 2016 Free Speech University Rankings, spiked‘s groundbreaking survey of campus freedom, which will be released on 1 February 2016. www.spiked-online.com/fsur