A scholar of Cambridge University, Dr Ally Louks faced a wave of online abuse, including misogynistic bullying and threats, after her social media post celebrating her academic milestone went viral. In response to the backlash, Cambridge University issued a statement expressing full support for Dr. Louks and condemning the harassment she faced.
“Dr Louks, we support you,” the statement began. “Last week, Cambridge PhD student @allylouks published this photo on X to celebrate passing her viva with no corrections. Her tweet went viral, attracting over 100 million views.”
“But the attention that Ally’s achievement received turned to harassment and misogyny when trolls attacked Ally’s PhD topic, her education, her achievement, and her gender.”
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It continued, “In the days afterwards, thousands of commenters-including from Cambridge’s own student, staff, and alumni communities-have added their supportive messages for Ally.”
“Ally has told us that the majority of the 11,000 comments and 20,000 retweets are from people showing “generosity, intellectual curiosity, and kindness.”.
“Curious about Dr Louks’ topic? ‘Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose’ studies how literature registers the importance of olfactory discourse-the language of smell and the olfactory imagination it creates-in structuring our social world. Congratulations, Dr Louks, on passing your viva with no corrections.”
Just like Dr Ally’s post, the statement by Cambridge University has also gone viral and is getting a good response.
“Congratulations, Dr I would love to read your thesis. Also kudos to Cambridge for supporting your learners offline and online,” commented a user.
“Congratulations on this achievement. I am really looking forward to reading and quoting your research,” wrote another user.
