How woke gatekeepers control Western education: The case of a German physicist having her research grant on cosmic inflation rejected over failing to include how it relates to gender and diversity reveals how woke activists are tightening their grips on all facets of education in the West

Acclaimed German quantum physicist Sabine Hossenfelder had her research proposal on cosmic inflation returned to her because the subject did not address its “relevance to sex, gender, and diversity,” with her case revealing that even in the hardest of sciences there is no escaping ideological purity tests.

Hossenfelder, who leads the Superfluid Dark Matter group at the Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Studies, wrote about the issue of her initial rejection on Twitter, saying that she was looking for advice on how to address the problem.

Questions arose as to why Hossenfelder needed to include information on sex and diversity for a research paper on the early universe, which led to a heated debate in the comments section of her post. She then reacted by deleting her tweet, issuing an explanation why she removed the post.

There is no reason to believe Hossenfelder was critical in her initial tweet, and she may have earnestly been looking for advice on how to address the gender and diversity requirement. Nevertheless, her tweet reveals the current state of academia. Even if she personally harbored any skepticism about such criteria, she has a strong incentive to keep quiet about it, as there are clear career and reputational consequences for any professor who openly questions the need for addressing diversity and gender in areas such as the hard sciences, even for seemingly completely unrelated topics like cosmic inflation.

Her tweet is hardly unique, with nearly every facet of academia increasingly focused on the issue of diversity, gender and inclusion. For researchers, scientists and professors who want to conduct their work in peace, there is little chance of entirely escaping such ideologically-fraught topics. For the few that reject or even voice mild criticism of this development, they are ostracized and sometimes outright resign out of frustration.