Katy Barnett

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Articles

[Repost] Lecturer’s duty of care

Nov 19, 2024 | open.substack.com | Katy Barnett

[I am teaching intensively at the moment, so I thought I would publish this old post on the way I approach teaching.]I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. I have views. You may be able to discern what they are. I am more than happy to chat with you about them in an open and civil fashion. I make it clear to my students: they do not have to agree with my views. I don’t presume that all right-thinking people agree with me; in fact, I know many very good people who disagree with me strongly.
Pro free speech, against antisemitism

Oct 14, 2024 | whatkatydid.net | Katy Barnett

Recently I wrote an op ed for The Age, regarding an unfortunate incident on my campus where a Jewish professor was harassed and stalked by protesters. In my byline I explained that I am a member of both the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A) and the Free Speech Union of Australia. The main criticism I’ve had in relation to the article—apart from the usual nonsense—is that I cannot be both pro free speech and anti antisemitism.
Masked protesters targeted my professor colleague this week because he is Jewish

Oct 11, 2024 | theage.com.au | Katy Barnett

OpinionBy Katy Barnett October 12, 2024 — 5.00am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. On Wednesday, numerous protesters (many masked) entered the office of my colleague and friend, Professor Steven Prawer, in the physics building at the University of Melbourne, and refused to leave when he requested. Instead, they chanted offensive slogans at him, and left stickers and signs all over his office.
The worthy fruit of academia

Aug 17, 2024 | whatkatydid.net | Katy Barnett

Philosophical subjects should never be taught with authority. They are not established sciences; they are full of disputed matters, open questions, and bottomless speculations. It is not the function of the teacher to settle philosophical and political controversies for the pupil, or even to recommend to him any one set of opinions as better than any others. Exposition, not imposition, of opinions is the professor’s part.
Professionalism in academia • Katy Barnett

Jun 18, 2024 | insidestory.org.au | Katy Barnett

Imagine you’ve enrolled in a subject at university called “Histories, Narratives and Trajectories of Football(s).” Imagine also that you are a massive fan of the English Premier League, and you can’t wait to do this subject. You turn up to class, and the lecturer states that he will be considering all legitimate codes of football, but that this does not include “the Evil Game.” You wonder what the Evil Game is. And then he displays a slide:Somewhat flummoxed, you ask about the Beautiful Game.
The noisy crickets

Apr 13, 2024 | whatkatydid.net | Katy Barnett

Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field. —Edmund BurkeAt the moment, I feel like social media is a mistake. I have pulled back on my use of various sites, including Facebook and X-Twitter.
Lessons of the law - Openforum

Dec 16, 2023 | openforum.com.au | Katy Barnett

We’re all searching for the same thing: fair principles to guide us. Say you buy grapes to make wine, but the seller fails to deliver the grapes. Everyone would agree you should get back the purchase price of the grapes, but should you also get the loss of profit from the wine you intended to make? Many societies share an idea that when we ask someone to pay for another’s loss, there must be fair and just limits to liability, a principle known to lawyers as ‘remoteness’.
Resolving contract disputes uses principles both ancient and cosmopolitan

Dec 14, 2023 | pursuit.unimelb.edu.au | Katy Barnett

We’re all searching for the same thing: fair principles to guide us. Say you buy grapes to make wine, but the seller fails to deliver the grapes. Everyone would agree you should get back the purchase price of the grapes, but should you also get the loss of profit from the wine you intended to make? Many societies share an idea that when we ask someone to pay for another’s loss, there must be fair and just limits to liability, a principle known to lawyers as ‘remoteness’.
Unsafe spaces

Dec 9, 2023 | whatkatydid.net | Katy Barnett |Lorenzo M Warby

Discover more from What Katy DidKaty Barnett’s personal substack: mother, wife, academic, lawyer, author (not necessarily in that order) It’s been an interesting week to be an academic. The Presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been grilled before a US Committee of the House of Representatives for their failure to prevent antisemitism on campus.
Our postcolonial trash needs taking out

Nov 14, 2023 | notonyourteam.co.uk | Helen Dale |Katy Barnett

For my sins, I had to study a “postcolonial theory and literatures” (note the plural) subject as an undergraduate. This was in 1992. Thanks to skilled use of my Marijuana Model of Intellectual Merit—aka “The Bong Scale”—I managed a high distinction and the subject prize. Each week, I read the material, stone cold sober, and tried to make sense of it. I often disagreed with its claims, and would (sometimes) set out alternative views in tutorials or small-group seminars.