Change of date for anti-woke campaigner’s public talk in Buckingham

A talk by a leading anti-woke campaigner in Buckingham has been rescheduled due to a planned rail strike.

Joanna Williams, author of How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement that Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason, will now be speaking on at 6pm on Wednesday, June 7, in the University of Buckingham’s Vinson Centre. Tickets are free and bookable through Eventbrite.

Dr Joanna Williams is the first speaker in a series of seminars organised by the newly formed Buckingham branch of Academics For Academic Freedom.

In her talk entitled ‘Free Speech in a Time of Woke’ Dr Williams will examine the state of free speech, drawing on ideas from her new book.

Joanna Williams is the director of the think tank CIEO. She is a columnist for the online magazine Spiked and writes for numerous publications including The Times, The Spectator, The Telegraph and Daily Mail.

Seminar organiser Dennis Hayes is a visiting professor at the University of Buckingham. He founded the campaign group Academics For Academic Freedom and has supported the setting up of the Buckingham branch, made up of students and academics.

He said: "The idea of anything being ‘woke’ is often denied by those who others would describe as very ‘woke’. It is very important to get clear about the notion of ‘woke’ because, as Joanna argues, it is a dangerous elitist movement that threatens free speech.

"Joanna’s challenging and controversial book discusses ‘How Woke Won’, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept the censorious authoritarianism of the woke. We need to challenge it through more and more free speech.”