Open Letter: David Starkey Does Not Speak for Cambridge University

Last week, I wrote about my shock and anger in finding that the current University of Cambridge campaign, ‘Dear World’, is presented by David Starkey. Starkey is portrayed as the official voice and face of Cambridge, representing students, faculty, and staff, as well as the research and teaching in which we participate. It is deeply disturbing that a man who has made numerous racist and misogynistic comments should represent us.

My colleague has now written an open letter, here.

If you are a Cambridge student, member of staff, or alumna/alumnus, please consider signing the letter. Anyone interested in signing can respond to us (notstarkey@gmail.com) with the email heading ‘Starkey’ and the body of their message containing their full name, departmental affiliation, and whether or not they’re staff or students (undergrads or postgrads) or alumni (who should include their year of graduation if possible).

I would be very grateful to anyone willing to share and promote this letter – we need signatures to demonstrate how utterly unacceptable this is, and how poorly Starkey represents our community. Feel free to retweet, share, and reblog.