Amia Srinivasan Journalist Profile

Articles

If We Say Yes: On Open Letters and Campus Protests

May 20, 2024 | transcend.org | Amia Srinivasan

Amia Srinivasan | London Review of Books – TRANSCEND Media Service 23 May 2024 Issue – An open letter is an unloved thing. Written by committee and in haste, it is a monument to compromise: a minimal statement to which all signatories can agree, or – worse – a maximal statement that no signatory fully believes. Some academics have a general policy against signing them.
Amia Srinivasan · If We Say Yes: Campus Speech

May 9, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Amia Srinivasan

An open letter is an unloved thing. Written by committee and in haste, it is a monument to compromise: a minimal statement to which all signatories can agree, or – worse – a maximal statement that no signatory fully believes. Some academics have a general policy against signing them. I discovered that was true of some of my Oxford colleagues last year, when I drafted and circulated an open letter condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza and calling for a ceasefire.
The Sucker, the Sucker!

Aug 30, 2023 | lrb.co.uk | Amia Srinivasan

The Sucker, the Sucker! Your browser does not support the audio element. ‘Octopuses,’ Amia Srinivasan writes, ‘are the closest we can come, on earth, to knowing what it might be like to encounter intelligent aliens.’ In our third summer reading, Srinivasan explores the paradoxical nature of octopus lives, and the difficulties humans have in understanding them.
Amia Srinivasan and Malin Hay

Jul 4, 2023 | lrb.co.uk | Amia Srinivasan |Malin Hay

Last month, the UK government appointed their first “free speech tsar”, whose stated mission is to protect free speech and academic freedom in universities. But, as Amia Srinivasan argues in a recent article, there's an inherent conflict in those goals. Amia joins Malin to discuss the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) act, whether students are increasingly leaning left and how activists across the political spectrum weaponise the concept of harm. Sign up to the LRB's Close Readings podcast here.
Amia Srinivasan · Cancelled: Can I speak freely?

Jun 21, 2023 | lrb.co.uk | Amia Srinivasan

Arif Ahmed, a professor of philosophy at Cambridge University, has been appointed the UK’s first ‘free speech tsar’. The position – Ahmed’s official title will be director for freedom of speech and academic freedom – is a creation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, which passed into law in May.