NZASIA statement, 30 October 2020

The New Zealand Asian Studies Society registers its deep concerns about the University of Canterbury’s decision that a paper written by Professor Anne-Marie Brady should result in its author facing an internal inquiry. We wish to know why the University of Canterbury – in its role as “critic and conscience of society” – did not handle the complaints made about Professor Brady’s paper, “Holding a Pen in One Hand, Gripping a Gun in the Other,” via open and critical dialogue in the spirit of academic freedom, but instead resorted to a top-down mechanism of review. The more general and possible impact of this inquiry could be for it to conflict with the legal requirement that universities and their academic staff serve as “critic and conscience of society” (The Education Amendment Act, New Zealand 1989, Section 162, 4, a, v).