Psychology staff: We strongly disagree with the student blockade

Signatories of this open letter can be seen below.

As teachers and researchers at the Department of Psychology, we wish to express strong concern and disapproval of the recent blockade of our department by a group of students. The action attempts to bypass democratic decisions made in our Study Board, it undermines our ability to organize teaching as experts within our fields, and it is a serious hazard to our work environment.

The claims motivating the blockade seem to be misguided, and we hope that the situation can be resolved when this is made clear. For example, the decision to revise the curriculum in Developmental Psychology was not made by the department leadership, but democratically (and with a large majority) in our Study Board on the basis of a suggestion from the teaching group in the course.

More generally, a large majority of the department’s scientific staff have already argued that the psychology education is not being narrowed down. On the contrary, it is increasingly up-to-date with the many perspectives and developments in international psychology.

This openness is also reflected in many hirings of scientific staff from outside Denmark in recent years; valued colleagues that unfortunately have experienced much resistance and criticism such as in the current situation.

We fully support our management

The department leadership has already gone a long way to meet the concerns voiced by students. The most tangible result of this dialogue process is three upcoming hirings at professor and associate professor level within humanistic psychology and community psychology. This will of course lead to markedly better capacity for teaching and thesis supervision in these fields. As colleagues, we welcome further strengthening of these areas of psychology, including more collaboration via closer integration in our research cluster organization.

We support our department leadership, our Study Board, and our teaching colleagues in this difficult situation, and hope that the university leadership will do the same.

Postdoc Adéla Plechatá, Lektor Anders Petersen, Postdoc Cécile Gal, Postdoc Charlotte Bjerre Meilstrup, Lektor Dea Siggaard Stenbæk, Tenure Track Adjunkt Dora Kampis, Postdoc Emanuela Yeung, Professor Ingo Zettler, Lektor Jan Nielsen, Lektor Jesper Dammeyer, Professor Kamilla Woznica Miskowiak, Tenure Track Adjunkt Katarina Harrison Begus, Postdoc Lau Lilleholt Harpviken, Postdoc Line Nielsen, Lektor Mark Schram Christensen, Professor Mette Skovgaard Væver, Adjunkt Monika Anna Walczak, Lektor Paul Maurice Conway, Lektor Pia Ingold, Professor Robert Böhm, Lektor Seamus Anthony Power, Postdoc Simon Hadlich, Lektor Sonja Breinholst, Tenure Track Adjunkt Sophie Reijman, Professor Søren Kyllingsbæk, Lektor Steven Blurton, Professor Stig Bernt Poulsen, Professor Thomas Habekost, Professor Thomas Morton, Lektor Thor Grünbaum, Professor Victoria Helen Southgate