Centre for Heterodox Social Science

Centre for Heterodox Social Science Challenging progressive orthodoxies in academia, advancing post-progressive social science research, and critically studying woke ideology.

Founded by Professor Eric Kaufmann.

Can universities really reform themselves from within — or does meaningful change require pressure from outside the syst...
24/09/2026

Can universities really reform themselves from within — or does meaningful change require pressure from outside the system?

In his presentation at Heterodox 2026, Christopher Rufo argues that entrenched universities are unlikely to reform themselves without external leverage.

He makes the case for using political, financial and institutional pressure to drive change, while challenging the idea that existing university structures can simply correct themselves from within.

Watch Why Universities Won’t Reform Themselves | Christopher Rufo | Heterodox 2026 in full:

👉 https://youtu.be/_DbbWH1GHx0

Explore Professor Eric Kaufmann’s University of Buckingham course, Woke: The Origins, Dynamics and Implications of an Elite Ideology:
https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses/occasional/woke/

24/09/2026

Can a nation be defined by the values its citizens happen to hold at any particular moment?

In this clip from his Heterodox 2026 presentation, Harrison Pitt challenges one of the central assumptions behind civic nationalism: that shared values and national identity are essentially the same thing.

Pitt argues that values inevitably change between generations, while a nation claims a continuity stretching across the dead, the living and those yet to be born.

That raises a deeper question: what allows a nation to remain recognisably the same nation as the beliefs and values of its people change?

Watch Why Civic Nationalism Is a Suicidal Wager | Harrison Pitt here:

👉 https://youtu.be/q2xEvFiZfC0

What actually makes someone feel that they belong to a nation?Is national identity primarily a matter of shared values a...
17/09/2026

What actually makes someone feel that they belong to a nation?

Is national identity primarily a matter of shared values and citizenship — or does it rest on deeper attachments to ancestry, history and inherited culture?

In his presentation at Heterodox 2026, writer Harrison Pitt sets out his argument for The Precognitive Roots of National Belonging.

Pitt challenges conventional ideas of civic nationalism and explores the relationship between national identity, ancestry, immigration, demographic change and social cohesion. He asks whether a nation can be sustained purely through a shared commitment to contemporary values, or whether belonging depends upon attachments that predate conscious political belief.

He also considers the tension between civic and ethnic conceptions of nationalism, arguing for an approach that takes inherited identity and historical continuity seriously while rejecting the hardest forms of ethnic nationalism.

Watch The Precognitive Roots of National Belonging | Harrison Pitt | Heterodox 2026 in full here:

👉 https://youtu.be/q2xEvFiZfC0

Explore Professor Eric Kaufmann’s University of Buckingham course, Woke: The Origins, Dynamics and Implications of an Elite Ideology:

https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses/occasional/woke/

The Heterodox Social Science Conference 2026 begins with Professor Eric Kaufmann examining one of the central tensions f...
16/09/2026

The Heterodox Social Science Conference 2026 begins with Professor Eric Kaufmann examining one of the central tensions facing modern institutions: the trade-off between equity and excellence.

In his opening presentation, Eric asks what happens when the pursuit of equal outcomes begins to conflict with merit, performance and institutional standards — and why that tension deserves far more serious scrutiny within the social sciences.

Watch The Equity-Excellence Trade-Off in full here:
https://youtu.be/T2rH7ewJoSw

Explore Eric Kaufmann’s University of Buckingham course, Woke: The Origins, Dynamics and Implications of an Elite Ideology:
https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses/occasional/woke/

Find out more about the Heterodox Social Science Conference:
https://heterodoxconference.com/

07/07/2026

Announcing the Second Annual Heterodox Social Science conference at The University of Buckingham 23-25 July

Free but with places strictly limited so you must move quickly.

22/05/2026

The British Right faces a brutal fact: its older voters are disappearing faster than it is creating younger ones. Unless it understands the cultural machinery shaping the next generation, it will lose by default.

02/04/2026

Rosie Kay and Eric Kaufmann discuss how audiences can act as a major bulwark against the progressive orthodoxies that persist within the arts.

01/04/2026

In our latest interview, Eric Kaufmann and Rosie Kay discuss the forces driving conformity within the arts and consider how these pressures may undermine the sector’s ability to engage audiences.

31/03/2026

In one of our most recent interviews, Eric Kaufmann and Rosie Kay explore how progressive ideas came to dominate the arts.

30/03/2026

In our latest interview, Rosie Kay outlines her experience of cancellation and the moment she chose to stand up to progressive orthodoxies within the arts.

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University Of Buckingham
Buckingham
MK181EG

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