A controversial Canadian professor has lost his chance to teach at the U.K.’s prestigious Cambridge University.
The university’s faculty of divinity tweeted Wednesday that it had rescinded a previous offer of a visiting fellowship to Jordan Peterson, who it says requested the position. A spokesperson for the school confirmed the information contained in the tweet to CTVNews.ca.
Peterson responded with a blog post in which he said he had not been formally notified about the offer being rescinded. He also took issue with the faculty making its revocation public when it had not publicized the initial offer.
“I think the Faculty of Divinity made a serious error of judgement in rescinding their offer to me,” he said.
“I think they handled publicizing the rescindment in a manner that could hardly have been more narcissistic, self-congratulatory and devious.”
The Cambridge University Students Union expressed support for the decision to rescind the offer to Peterson, writing on Facebook that it considers some of Peterson’s opinions to be discriminatory against minority groups.
“His work and views are not representative of the student body and as such we do not see his visit as a valuable contribution to the University, but one that works in opposition to the principles of the University,” the group’s statement reads.
Peterson disputed the union’s claim in his blog post, arguing that the attendance at a lecture he gave at Cambridge last November shows that students at the university are “very interested” in his opinions.
He said he still plans to produce the biblical lectures he had planned to work with the university on, and wished the Cambridge officials who decided to rescind the offer a “continued decline in relevance.”
Peterson, a psychology professor at the university of Toronto, has drawn a global following for his views on free speech and other issues. He has also attracted significant controversy for his opposition to what he sees as excessive political correctness, and recently sued Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., for $1.5 million, alleging he was defamed by two of the school’s staff members during a meeting with a teaching assistant.
