Oxford Professor of Poetry - 2009 Election

2009 Election

On 16 May 2009, Ruth Padel defeated the Indian poet Arvind Mehrotra to become the first woman elected to the post since its inception in 1708. The Nobel Prize-Winning candidate Derek Walcott had withdrawn his candidacy, after The Sunday Times and Cherwell revealed that various Oxford academics had been sent, anonymously, photocopied pages from The Lecherous Professor, a University of Illinois publication on the prevalence of sexual harassment in American universities, describing two such cases laid against Walcott at Harvard University and Boston University. Walcott's candidacy had been controversial within the University from the beginning, some counselling against on grounds of Walcott's university past, others arguing that his record was immaterial since he would have no contact with students. Newspapers had previously claimed Walcott was the favourite, but The Times pointed out that this was a lazy understanding of a system which does not in fact admit of favourites, since the number of supporters listed in the University Gazette gives no clue to the final outcome. Padel criticized the anonymous missives and denied any knowledge of them, though many in the media continued to insinuate her involvement. After her election, in a media storm which both demonstrated the vulnerability of this electoral system to media opinion and allowed the media simultaneously to pursue allegations in Walcott's university past and criticize Padel for having mentioned these allegations as a source of university voters' disquiet, two journalists who before the election had requested information from Padel regarding voters' opinions, revealed that she had cited to them the source of some people's unease about the suitability for appointment of someone with such a university record. It was clear these emails had not led to Walcott's withdrawal, since the journalists concerned had not acted on them. Padel stated, 'I wish he had not pulled out.' and resigned on 25 May. The Observer newspaper attributed the campaign against Padel to "toxicity of the metropolitan media" and letters to British newspapers criticized media handling of the election. A letter to the Times Literary Supplement, complained of unfair media pursuit of Walcott's past, a letter in The Guardian complained of unjust denigration of Padel, claiming she was "justly held in high regard" for her poetry and teaching, and a letter to The Times claimed that "Oxford has missed out for the worst of reasons. 'One can only speculate why so many male voices were loud in condemning Padel but silent with respect to Walcott. I attended a course taught by Ruth Padel: she was inspirational, involved, enthusiastic and interested in her students. Perhaps it was unwise of her to email journalists but if Walcott's past is "irrelevant to his suitability to fill the post of Professor of Poetry", so is Padel's "unwisdom". That Walcott removed the decision from the electorate was his own choice. Padel should not have been made to pay for his decision to confront neither his accusers nor his past." American commentators attributed this series of events to a gender war at Oxford, perceiving a "split across the Atlantic - with the Americans, the ones after all working with Walcott over the decades, taking those claims much more seriously" and finding the spectacle of academics 'negating a substantial anecdotal reputation' depressing." Wider poetry opinion in Britain supported Padel, attributing the smear campaign in the media to misogyny and networking. "The old boys have closed in on her", the poet Jackie Kay stated. On Newsnight Review the poet Simon Armitage and poetry writer Josephine Hart expressed regret about Padel's resignation. "Ruth's a good person", Armitage said. "She dipped a toe in the media whirlpool and it dragged her down. I don't think she should have resigned, she would have been good." The election was for a post beginning the first day of Michaelmas Term 2009 hence Padel did not take up office. In the 2010 election she supported Geoffrey Hill.