A Cancelling at Poland’s Jagiellonian University

My lecture on Evidence-Based Psychology was too much for trans activists, by Tomasz Witkowski

“The topics you discuss in your books have always been close to me; they were close to me primarily because of the fight against disinformation, post-truth and the decline of the authority of the academy. After four years of studies at my institution, I recognize many of the sins that you have written about. I like what you do and I want to work with it!”

This is what the president of the PRAGMA Scientific Club, who is also a student of psychology at Jagiellonian University, wrote to me in August 2025, the year he asked me to give the key lecture at the student-doctoral conference “Psychodebutions.” I agreed and we exchanged several more e-mails determining the details of my speech, including the topic of the lecture: Evidence-based psychology. Our exchanges included many equally enthusiastic words of appreciation about my work, and I began preparing the presentation and lecture.

Then, just a month before the conference, I received an e-mail from him canceling my lecture. He explained, “Facebook posts about transgender people recently shared by you harm their well-being, and we want the space of our Conference to be a safe place for every student.” Instead, he proposed holding the lecture “on a different date and under different conditions.” Only two days after it was announced that I would no longer be participating in the conference, this lecture too was cancelled.

I was surprised. I have never hidden my views. Since I have published 19 books, maintain a regular blog, and have my essays published a few times a year in both the mainstream Polish press and the international press, learning about my views is hardly an insurmountable obstacle for the average student. In my publications I warn against the hasty decision to transition, especially among minors, and highlight the danger to women’s rights posed by men identifying as transwomen, etc. So, what was so outrageous about these Facebook posts?

Safe spaces that devastate academic institutions

The first post linked to material from Genspect’s Re-Psychopathologization Campaign and summarized its contents. The second post linked to an article from UnHerd Magazine entitled Why Are Fewer Young People Identifying as Trans? and reported the research results along with a short comment speculating that the fashion for identifying as trans could be waning. And finally, the third one linked to a Quillette article: We Need to Talk About Trans Identified Killers. My only comment on the third post was “Good to know…” All three posts can still be read, unchanged, on my Facebook profile from October.

When I replied to the students, I pointed out that “Throwing out guests you invited to a party reflects badly on you as the host. I want to believe that your decision was solely due to immaturity rather than acquiescing to the demands of trans activists. If the latter is true, it would mean that the Academy, whose values I have devoted a large part of my life to, has been ideologically devastated. Perhaps my faith has been naive after all.

If the last scenario is true—that you faced pressure from outside activists while organizing the conference and succumbed to it—I can only express my deep sympathy for your broken moral backbone (if you ever had one).

I believe this event will go down permanently in the inglorious history of cancellations that have taken place at Poland’s oldest university.”

The media in Poland took an interest in the story, describing it in an objective and truthful manner and joined in the call to stop my cancellation and harassment.

I requested that the director of the Institute where the Students’ Scientific Club and the Ombudsman for Academic Rights and Values of the Jagiellonian University operate intervene in the cancellation. Before I received an answer, however, my meeting with students in Warsaw was canceled. Anonymous activists also began trying to influence the organizers of the Silesian Science Festival in Katowice—probably the largest in Europe—to cancel my previously scheduled lecture. It is worth adding that neither the lecture for students nor for the general audience during the festival addressed trans issues in any way. The self-proclaimed Orwellian Thought Police simply decided that I had committed a thought crime by publishing my posts on Facebook and should be banished from public life.

The Polish Rationalists Association, the Polish Skeptics Club, of which I am a member, and my publisher, Bez Maski Publishing House, came to my defense, writing to the Jagiellonian University’s rector, asking for intervention. The outstanding Polish psychologist—Prof. Dariusz Doliński—also spoke up, stating:

“It was an absolutely reprehensible decision. I am completely convinced that students have the right to disagree with the theses presented by Dr. Witkowski. This is the right of every person, especially a person who works in science. In the face of this disagreement, there are two attitudes: either we avoid the discussion and run away, or we confront the views. We ask a person to explain his position, we ask him questions, often difficult ones; we present our own views and then we can consider for ourselves whether he is right. And this is the right attitude.”

I waited two and a half months for any official reaction from Jagiellonian University. In the response I finally received from the University, the Ombudsman for Academic Rights and Values wrote, among other things:

“The Academy should remain a place of calm debate, free from any attempts to appropriate the discourse, open to expressed views and opinions, capable of verifying their validity based on arguments and dialogue. A situation in which a scientist is invited to give a lecture during a scientific event and is subsequently removed from the group of speakers by the organizers due to views attributed to him is not in line with academic standards. (…) According to my findings, the decision by the board of the “Pragma” scientific club to cancel your lecture was not made unanimously. I am critical both of the fact that it was undertaken and the way of communicating it, and I see the main reason for the current situation as the lack of proper supervision of the scientific group.”

This statement, although marked as official, was sent to me by e-mail and has not been published anywhere. Neither the rector of one of the oldest universities in Europe nor anyone else representing this university has commented on this matter.

The intellectual terrorism of absurd accusations of harm

During the social media discussion regarding my cancellation, the safety of transgender people during the conference was emphasized. This is not the first time this grotesque argument has been presented. It was used when canceling other people in Poland, and others at the same university. It is invariably deployed against people who have never been convicted of anything and who are not known for harming others. Publicly suggesting that someone is a threat to the safety of others is not just rude and unlawful. Raising such arguments is a form of intellectual terrorism, which, unfortunately, more and more institutions are succumbing to.

My case was quite special. I am a recognizable person in Poland, strongly independent of all institutions, fearless and mentally resilient. All this means that I have already dealt with similar situations and am not afraid to talk about them publicly. Unfortunately, it is no secret that the victims of similar but silent cancellations are scientists and science popularizers whose careers are just beginning and have a lot to lose. This is the main reason I want to speak out publicly about what happened and identify the authors of the cancellation. The only thing that can prevent them from further attempts at marginalizing people with inconvenient views is the fear of public condemnation. Unfortunately, for now they have been applauded by some, and received tacit consent from the majority, including, shamefully, from representatives of the Academy which until recently was the mainstay of free academic debate.

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