Videos | Intellectual Diversity

Dr. Dorian Abbot

Associate Professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago
June 20, 2023

Professor Abbot was the focus of a highly publicized cancellation in October 2021 when MIT administrators canceled his scheduled presentation of the prestigious Carlson Lecture. A group of students and faculty objected to his talk on Twitter because of his prior public statements opposing current diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in higher education, instead advocating for a paradigm emphasizing merit, fairness, and equality. ACTA proudly honored Abbot as a Hero of Intellectual Freedom in the spring of 2022.

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Dorian Abbot: Merit, Fairness, and Equality

Higher Ed Now delves into issues of merit, fairness and equality, academic freedom, and more with Dorian Abbot, associate professor in the department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. It’s well known that Dr. Abbot was invited last year to give the prestigious Carlson Lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—and then, in September, he was disinvited by MIT after a group of activists launched an online cancellation campaign against him. 
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University of Chicago Geophysicist Dorian Schuyler Abbot Recognized as a 2021 Hero of Intellectual Freedom by ACTA

WASHINGTON, DC—Dorian Schuyler Abbot, associate professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, has been recognized as a Hero of Intellectual Freedom by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Professor Abbot was recently invited to deliver the Carlson Lecture before the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Department of Earth, […]
Press Releases

ACTA President Michael Poliakoff Sends Letter to MIT President Harshly Criticizing University for Cancelling Professor Dorian Abbot’s Carlson Lecture

Washington, DC—The American Council of Trustees and Alumni President Michael Poliakoff today sent a letter to L. Rafael Reif, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), harshly criticizing the university’s decision to cancel University of Chicago Professor Dorian Abbot’s invitation to deliver the prestigious John Carlson lecture on October 21, 2021.  The letter to […]
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