The Margins Review · Culture-Centered Approach

  David Cumin of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, a key driving force in the targeting of academics critical of Israel Zionist Extremism and the Threat to Academic Freedom in Aotearoa New Zealand In the landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand's higher education, the university is legally mandated to serve as the "critic and conscience" of society. This role is not merely a professional privilege; it is a democratic necessity. However, this mandate is increasingly under siege by external political actors who seek to weaponize inflammatory rhetoric to police the boundaries of scholarly inquiry. A recent public statement by David Cumin of the Israel Institute of New Zealand—calling me a "terror justifier" and demanding an apology for my appointment to the National Counter Extremism Research Centre—offers a visceral case study in what I consider to be the rise of Zionist extremism as a direct threat to academic freedom. The Context: Why This Centre Exists and Why My A...

This opinion piece is the third of a five-part series on the intertwined webs of the far right mobilised to attack communication and media studies pedagogy. This piece is written in solidarity with other Communication and Media Studies academics, researchers, and practitioners who have been targeted by the far-right.  The Far-Right wants to cancel Communication and Media Studies. The entire discipline. Yes, you read it right, the entire discipline! A platform titled "The Centrist" published the article, "Abolish communications and media studies (Karl du Fresne)," opening with: "Writer Karl du Fresne says abolishing the department of communications and media studies at every university will vastly ease the financial crisis of those unis while neutralising a key source of division in the culture wars." This irrational rant would be comical if not for the violence such rhetoric promotes, the direct effects of which are experienced by academics , particularl...