Arantza Asali, currently a graduate student, said she never thought St. Andrews would graduate, get the praise and tuition money she deserved, and then do so.
“The neglect of our education and the well-being of our employees is unacceptable,” she wrote on Twitter.
In the past, concerns have been raised about the global under-representation of women in philosophy. And those who drew attention to the university’s decision not to renew Ms. Kerr’s contract point to the broader questions in her philosophy department.
According to the letter in their support, as of this month, of the department’s 35 members of the academic and scientific staff, only 12 were women, while of these 12 women only five have permanent positions (one of which is part-time), two are visiting scholars , three are professorial fellows who are not primarily employed by the university, and two have fixed-term contracts, including Dr. Kerr.
The department’s 19 full-time employees include only four women, and one woman does not hold a permanent junior position. Of the 57 Ph.D. of the student division, only 13 are women.
Scientists around the world have expressed their support for Dr. Kerr voiced on social media.
“Absolutely shameful and part of a long list of layoffs by women and BAME scientists in recent years,” wrote Dr. Camilla Mork Rostvik, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leeds, on Twitter under an acronym for black commonly used in the UK. Asian and “ethnic minorities”.
“This is a profound injustice and just an incredible mistake,” wrote Jonathan Ichikawa, associate professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia. “Your work is exemplary and there is no one with adequate expertise willing to replace it.”
