This is definitely an international blunder. I’d say it’s more socially acceptable in the UK to call someone a c*t than it is to use this word. Can safely say it’ll get zero UK adoption due to the name. Shame.
It's a horrible term that was used for years to denigrate disabled people and that it is used now in cloistered and privileged academic settings is no excuse for an ignorant dismissal like that of the hurt, bigotry and exclusion it conveys.