"We all know what happens to heretics, even when they're right: they are denounced and isolated..." It was Wednesday. On Tuesday morning my Conversation piece had appeared, as planned. I'd spend time that day and the next - with one sick kid at home, then two - replying to readers as their comments trickled in.…

"You are never going to win against either The Australian or Marginson who are far too powerful, whatever the merits in this matter." This candid dose of Realpolitik had landed a week after my Dantean detour in the Mad Max car park (Chapter 16). It made sense. Not least in that it matched what others, closer to…

Last month's High Court ruling on Peter Ridd versus James Cook University concludes a third deep dive by judges into a Kafka-Down-Under policy maze about academic freedom and its lawful limits. Should sharp, dismissive criticism of other scholars' research be sanctioned as misconduct, if university managers find it uncollegial or disrespectful? In this case, complaints…