Shereen Benjamin

Shereen taught in schools in London for 14 years; beginning as a primary class teacher, then teaching in a special school for children with complex needs, and finally in a comprehensive school for girls. While working as a learning support teacher there, she undertook her PhD research on the experiences of students with global learning difficulties in a mainstream secondary school. This considered the intersection of disability with gender, sexuality, social class, ethnicity and physical appearance in the “identity work” of girls and young with special educational needs.

In 2005 she moved to Scotland to take up a post in teacher education at the University of Edinburgh. She has worked there in a variety of roles over the last 20 years, principally teaching and supervising student teachers, and researching and writing on gender and education. In 2022 she was one of the founder members of Edinburgh Academics for Academic Freedom, the first local branch of the parent organisation Academics for Academic Freedom. She was also on the inaugural working group of Labour Women’s Declaration. 

“Universities should maintain a neutral position on gender identity theory, so that staff and students can research, teach and discuss the theory itself and its many implications without fear of censure or attack. Universities should uphold the right of their members to hold supportive, critical and agnostic positions on gender identity theory, and should actively defend their right to argue for those positions according to normal academic conventions.”