Australian academics suspended over criticism of thesis on laughing at the disabled

A short summary of the story from The Courier Mail:

TWO academics have been suspended without pay for six months for criticising a thesis which they said poked fun at disabled people.

John Hookham and Gary MacLennan, both senior lecturers in creative industries at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), criticised the PhD work in an April article in The Australian newspaper.

The thesis is a film starring two intellectually impaired men and is entitled Laughing at the Disabled.

The academics said the men were put in cruel situations they did not understand - one in which they were sent to a rural pub to tell locals they were looking for romance, provoking advances from a drunk woman.

They said the scenes provoked raucous laughter at a university screening.

"The purpose of humour is not just cruelty ... we don't think it's funny to mock and ridicule two intellectually disabled boys," the pair wrote in the article.

An excellent detailed report from The Australian:

The project had been developed in conjunction with the disability group Spectrum and the two men depicted in it as well as their parents were comfortable with the idea, having had experience with Noonan in the making of Unlikely Travellers [a film about a group of disabled people who had gone to the Sahara Desert, which has been purchased by the ABC and will be screened later this year].

In addition, the university's ethics committee had cleared the project.

But after seeing the rushes, MacLennan, a lecturer at the university, said: "I have a handicapped child and I pray to God that my child never comes into contact with someone like you." Also present was Hookham, who questioned the use of disabled people.

That night, Noonan emailed MacLennan and Hookham, asking them to expand on their responses.

MacLennan emailed back, saying: "It's quite simple, Michael, I was brought up by my mother - one of the uneducated Irish peasantry. She was the best human being I have ever met. She taught me not to mock the afflicted. I had to go to a university to see the mocking of the afflicted being celebrated under the spurious rubric of 'post-structuralism'."

A few weeks later, Noonan gave a lecture that involved scenes from Unlikely Travellers, and at the end of his lecture he explained that the two disabled men involved in the film were present. Indeed they were, and they answered questions from the class. What happened next depends on who you listen to.

According to various blog entries written by students, some of them found the experience positively challenged their view of the disabled, as here were two men quite open about their disabilities and prepared to speak openly and honestly.

But others claimed the experience shocked and embarrassed them.

Here's a round-up of some bloggers on the events.

Here's a link to some videos on the academics' position, an excerpt from Noonan's previous work Unlikely Travellers, and some disability advocates on the controversy.

Thoughts?