University of Oxford chancellor William Hague has said a series of lectures set to take place at the institution about gender identity should go ahead after the lecturer cancelled them due to “escalating disruptive protests”.
Michael Foran, associate professor of law at Oxford, posted on X that he had decided not to go ahead with the remaining lectures in a planned series on the topic of sex, gender identity and the law.
“Due to escalating disruptive protests, I have decided to cancel the remainder of these lectures,” Foran writes. “This is deeply lamentable, but the disruption has undermined the academic nature of this series. Students shouldn’t face bullying or harassment when attending academic events.”
He said protesters had disrupted the second lecture in the series for “about 10 minutes” at the start.
It is unclear what happened to the protesters but the lecture did go ahead as planned following the disruption. During the lecture, Foran invited anyone who has “critical views about the topic” to stay and “ask a challenging question afterwards”.
