Campus Review Volume 28 - Issue 8 | August 2018 | Seite 14

policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
Award turns turtle
Academic’s award revoked after
complaints from conference
attendees of sexually
inappropriate presentation.
Matthew Beard interviewed by Loren Smith
W
ould you rescind an award if the recipient included
‘racy’ photographs in a presentation?
The Herpetologists’ League would.
The American society of amphibian and reptile researchers
revoked renown turtle researcher Richard Vogt’s Distinguished
Herpetologist award.
This followed an audience outcry, largely on Twitter, for
allegedly offensive photographs Vogt used in a presentation at the
Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Rochester,
New York, in July.
Presenting on ‘Vocalizations in Seaturtles’, Vogt, a professor at
the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Brazil, showed
photographs of student researchers in swimwear. Parts of the
photographs had been censored by conference organisers,
without Vogt’s prior knowledge.
Audience and industry outrage followed swiftly:
Dear Herpetology,
Can we as a field please do away with obscene photographs
and sexual innuendo in talks please? I have been seeing this for
the last 20 years at almost every meeting. It’s fucking gross and
we wonder why we have a diversity problem. Signed this one
#HERper
— Dan L. Edwards (@EdwardsDanL) 12 July 2018
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This then snowballed into a more general discussion about
diversity (or, more specifically, the lack thereof), as well as sexual
harassment in the field.
All the award winners at #jmih18 are inspirational, humble
and accomplished scientists. They are also all white men. We
must do better in our recruitment, mentorship and support of
underrepresented students.
— Emily Taylor (@snakeymama) 12 July 2018
I haven’t been tweeting as much this year or been able to focus
as well at #JMIH18 because a sexist misogynist was lifted up
and awarded by one of the member societies. The award has
been rescinded, but it brings up a lot for me and other women
who have experienced harassment.
— Anat Belasen (@anatinmyshoe) 14 July 2018
As a result, the Herpetologists’ League rescinded Vogt’s award
and pledged to address the broader issues that stemmed from
the affair.
Vogt, who’s known in the field for his ground-breaking research
on turtle egg temperature and sex, and turtle vocalisations, has
denied the photographs were inappropriate and claimed their
censoring may have made them appear suggestive.
So, where does this leave Vogt? His presentation slides have
not been sighted by Campus Review. Regardless, is it possible
to objectively determine whether the material they contain is
obscene or not?
Philosopher and ethicist Dr Matthew Beard, from the Ethics
Centre in Sydney, thinks so. Rather than encompassing a strict
definition, however, he believes obscenity is “known when it’s
seen”. It is contextually and culturally dependent. For example,
the way he would sit on his couch at home is different to how he
would sit on a discussion panel at a conference.