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> Some of his experimental papers where he talks of "dog rape" were perhaps borne out of his outrage at his situation

You may have misunderstood the whole Grievance Studies affair. The papers were not experimental, they were deliberately and visibly fake in order to point out the ridiculousness of the whole field.

The "experiment" was testing whether these bogus papers would make it through peer review and get published.

> should have some protection where the teacher is not harassed.

It is called tenure. And it is available to all departments, as true research is by definition “edgy”. However, somehow tenure system nowadays encourages groupthink. The shortest path to tenure if by conformism.

> A literal interpretation of the word "liberal college" reflects the reality that many places are liberal bubbles of thought, where there won't be a safe space for researchers to pick apart and look closely at conservative views of a subject

Isn't that the opposite of what he is complaining about? He criticised illiberalism and picked apart a subject in an unorthodox way, which resulted in his critics harassing him. There were not any liberal bubbles/safe spaces that could protect him from the harassers.

Liberal as in "liberal" with the contemporary meaning, as understood in US culture, not as allowing liberty of thought.