Jo Phoenix

Joanna Phoenix (born 1964) is a British criminologist. In December 2021, she joined the University of Reading as a professor of criminology. Phoenix researches the policies and legislation affecting sexual acts and the social conditions which underpin them. The founder of the Gender Critical Research Network at the Open University, and formerly a criminology professor at the institution, Phoenix successfully sued the University in 2024 at an employment tribunal for constructive dismissal, victimisation, harassment and direct discrimination.

Quotes

• I resigned from Open University last night. The university has allowed things to escalate to a point beyond repair. My trust and heart have been broken.
  • Tweet (3 December 2021), as cited by Nicola Woolcock in "Jo Phoenix, academic likened to racist for her trans views, resigns from Open University", The Times (4 December 2021)

• I don't care about self-ID in certain places [...] People can be who they want when they go to the cinema or park, but it's not so straightforward in places like hospitals and prisons.
• When you are a victim of rape, you know that bodies, the size and strength of them, matter, and you know physical differences between men and women. There is no way of unknowing that.
  • Interviewed by Gwyneth Rees, as cited in "Professor Jo Phoenix interview: 'The tactics in the tribunal were the same as in my rape case'", The Telegraph (28 January 2024)
  • A victim of rape when she was 15, Phoenix and her family were living in Texas. Born in Sheffield in northern England, her father gained an academic post in the American state when she was a young child.

• From my perspective, the big headline is that academics, students and people in universities cannot go round calling people who are gender critical or come from that perspective transphobes and terfs [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] without it being both an insult but also opening the possibility of it being an act of harassment to do so.
  The judgment was very, very clear that those kinds of statements are used as an insult and to create a hostile working environment – ie, to stop people talking.
  • From an interview, as cited in "Jo Phoenix: 'every single v-c should read this judgment'", Times Higher Education (29 January 2024)
  • Tim Blackman, the OU's vice-chancellor, said in a statement: "We apologise unreservedly to Professor Phoenix for the hurt and distress this has caused".