James is a Research Fellow with the Initiative and his main focus will be on higher education policy, including academic freedom.
James holds a BA in Classics from Oxford, an MA in Ancient History from the University of London, an MA in Political Science from Stanford, and a PhD in Classics from Stanford.
He is also the co-host (with Michael Johnston) of Free Kiwis!, a podcast dedicated to free speech in a New Zealand context, and he can be found on Twitter at @Kleisthenes2.
Phone: 04 499 0790
Struggling to think of a good topic for a humorous column this week, I unexpectedly got a major break when my name was – unbelievably – added to a Signal messaging group of top New Zealand government officials. The texts reveal the magnitude of some of the problems that New Zealand politicians have to deal with. Read more
As someone who is fond of a tipple but who is also unhealthily health-conscious, I’ve long tried to keep up with news on the science of alcohol and health. My main response has been mild bemusement, as booze has been declared to be not so good for you, then actually pretty good for you, and – more recently – Very Much Not Good for You At All. Read more
Panic ensued this week after it was revealed that young people have been going to summer music festivals, listening to music – and in some cases even getting drunk. As a report for RNZ revealed, there has been a crackdown on outdoor festivals all through the summer, with four postponed and another four cancelled outright. Read more
In this episode, James and Michael talk to Stephanie Martin from the Free Speech Union (and also the New Zealand Initiative) about a Law Commission consultation paper on hate crime legislation. The discussion examines the shift from treating hate as an aggravating factor in sentencing to creating specific hate crime offenses, while exploring philosophical questions about hate motivation and concerns about free speech implications. Read more
A few years ago, when I was still a classics lecturer, I started to notice a disturbing trend. Scholars were being denounced on Twitter (RIP) for wrongthink. Read more
In Hayek’s Bastards, the distinguished historian Dame Anne Salmond takes issue with Act’s Regulatory Standards Bill, which she sees as the attempt of a fringe party to impose its ideologies and which she thinks would “elevate individual rights and private property above all other considerations in law-making” and thus undermine democracy. Salmond presents the bill as a result, not of the normal processes of democracy, but of a global conspiracy of ‘neo-liberal’ think tanks tracing their lineage to 20th-century thinkers such as Friedrich von Hayek. Read more
In this episode, James, Eric and Oliver critique Dame Anne Salmond's Newsroom article that characterises the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill as part of a broader neoliberal agenda to undermine democracy in New Zealand. They challenge both Salmond's immediate criticisms of the bill (which they argue misrepresents its regulatory quality focus) and her broader historical argument linking classical liberal organisations like the Mont Pelerin Society to anti-democratic movements, arguing instead that classical liberalism has historically stood against totalitarianism and for democratic values. Read more
New Zealand, we love you. We love you Aussies. Read more
Academic freedom is a hot topic at the moment. The coalition agreement required universities to have academic freedom policies to receive government funding. Read more
In this episode, Michael and James talk to Oxford theologian Nigel Biggar as he discusses his experiences with academic cancel culture and argues that while the British Empire had significant flaws, it also helped spread important liberal values and institutions throughout the world. The conversation then delves into how modern universities are struggling with free speech and academic discourse, suggesting that a combination of institutional cowardice, loss of religious frameworks, and generational disconnection from historical threats to democracy has led to current campus tensions around controversial topics. Read more
A few weeks ago, soon after checking into my hotel in Varanasi, I got a knock at my door. It was the manager, asking if I’d noticed that my visa was about to run out in precisely twenty-four hours. Read more
Only a few days after the University of Auckland’s so-called academic freedom policy was rejected by the university’s Senate, Victoria University of Wellington’s own academic freedom policy has come to light. Victoria’s policy is likely a response to the government’s stated intention to make such policies a condition for government funding. Read more
In this episode, Michael talks to James about his recent report about the state of academic freedom in New Zealand universities, highlighting concerns about censorship, institutional bias, and self-censorship among academics. Their conversation explores the causes of these issues, including commercialisation of universities and the influence of progressive politics, and proposes recommendations such as new legislation, annual audits, and better training for administrators to protect and strengthen academic freedom. Read more
In this episode, James and Dr Nick Matzke discuss recent changes at the University of Auckland, including a push to cut some existing courses and a special University Senate meeting where a vote was held on a motion to pause the Curriculum Framework Transformation for further discussion. Dr Nick Matzke, a biogeography professor, provides insights into the tensions between incorporating mātauranga Māori and maintaining scientific rigour in university curricula, while also addressing broader issues of academic freedom and faculty governance. Read more
Academic freedom is an essential ingredient in any flourishing university system. It allows ideas to be put forward and debated, and thus underpins high-quality research and teaching. Read more