A group of Oxford PhD students have backed the appointment of a scholar accused of racism to a Cambridge University fellowship. They said that academics campaigning against him were pandering to popular opinion.
Noah Carl was awarded the Toby Jackman Newton Trust research fellowship at St Edmund’s College. The college is investigating the appointment after more than 200 academics signed a letter accusing him of “racist pseudoscience”.
Dr Carl, a social scientist, has spoken at a eugenics conference and has said hostility to immigrant groups draws on “rational beliefs” about stereotypes that are “quite accurate”.
In a letter to The Times, published today, the PhD students say the 200 academics are not experts in Dr Carl’s field of study and are being swayed by