මිඩ්ල්සෙක්ස් සරසවි සිසුහු දර්ශන අධ්‍යයන අංශය රැක ගැනීමට සටන් වදිති! ලොව පුරා දාර්ශනිකයෝ තීරණය වෙනස් කරන ලෙස සරසවියෙන් ඉල්ලති!!

Students at Middlesex University are now occupying the main administrative building of the Trent Park campus, Middlesex University, demanding a reversal of this irrational decision. Lot’s of people have come in support of us, giving presentations, lectures, songs, even a ‘socialist magic show’. We had a meeting with the university administration but it was not very successful, both the parties were playing hardball and it ended at a dead end.

The occupation started on Tuesday the 4th of May, by occupying the board meeting room of the Mansion building. On the following day evening, a large number of supporters, including Etienne Balibar, gathered outside the building and with their support we managed to take control of the whole building by around 6 pm. More photos of the occupation, are available if you go for the facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=119102561449990&ref=mf

VS

Here is a letter signed by basically all the the leading philosophers in the world today, appeared in the Times Higher Education supplement

6 May 2010

We the undersigned deplore Middlesex University’s recent decision to close its philosophy programmes, including its prestigious and successful MAs. This is a matter of national and indeed international concern. Not only does it contradict Middlesex’s stated commitment to promote “research excellence”, it also represents a startling stage in the impoverishment of philosophy provision in the UK.

We have participated in events organised by the Philosophy Group at Middlesex and can testify to its unique strengths and its significant and distinctive contribution to philosophy in the UK. Its set of MA programmes is currently the largest in the country.

Philosophy is the highest-rated research subject at Middlesex. In the research assessment exercise 2008, it was rated first in philosophy among post-1992 universities, with 65 per cent of its research judged “world-leading” or “internationally excellent”.

Middlesex is widely recognised as one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speaking world. It has one of only a handful of philosophy departments left in the UK that provides both research-driven and inclusive postgraduate teaching and supervision aimed at a wide range of students, specialist and non-specialist.

We call on Middlesex to reverse its damaging and ill-judged decision, and to renew its commitment to widening participation in education and excellence in research.

Keith Ansell-Pearson, professor of philosophy, University of Warwick

Alain Badiou, emeritus professor of philosophy, École Normale Supérieure, Paris

Etienne Balibar, emeritus professor of philosophy, Université de Paris-Nanterre, and distinguished professor of humanities, University of California, Irvine

Miguel Beistegui, professor of philosophy, University of Warwick

Andrew Benjamin, professor of critical theory and philosophical aesthetics, Monash University, Australia

Andrew Bowie, professor of philosophy and German, Royal Holloway, University of London

Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot professor of rhetoric and comparative literature, University of California, Berkeley

Susan Buck-Morss, Jan Rock Zubrow professor of government, Cornell University, New York

Barbara Cassin, directeur de recherches, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris

Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy and chair of the philosophy department, New School for Social Research, New York

Christopher Fynsk, professor of comparative literature and modern thought, and director of the Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen

Simon Glendinning, reader in European philosophy, London School of Economics, and director of the Forum for European Philosophy

Boris Groys, professor of Slavic and Russian studies, New York University

Michael Hardt, professor of literature, Duke University, NC

Harry Harootunian, emeritus professor of history, Chicago and New York universities

Joanna Hodge, professor of philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University

Claude Imbert, emeritus professor of philosophy, École Normale Supérieure, Paris

Mandy Merck, professor of media arts, Royal Holloway, University of London

Dermot Moran, professor of philosophy, University College Dublin

Michael Moriarty FBA, centenary professor of French literature and thought, Queen Mary, University of London

Antonio Negri, philosopher and political scientist

Jacques Rancière, emeritus professor of philosophy, Université de Paris VIII

Kristin Ross, professor of comparative literature, New York University

Lynne Segal, anniversary professor, psychosocial studies, Birkbeck, University of London

Peter Sloterdijk, rektor der Staatlichen Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe

Gayatri Spivak, university professor in the humanities, Columbia University, New York

Isabelle Stengers, professor of philosophy, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Peter Weibel, chairman and CEO, ZKM/Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe

James Williams, professor of European philosophy, University of Dundee

Slavoj Zizek, co-director of the International Centre for Humanities, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London