A PhD student who was booted off his course after writing a paper describing how he masturbated to sexualised images of young boys has accused his university and publisher of surrendering to an online pile-on.

Karl Andersson was expelled by the University of Manchester and his 2022 article ¨C subtitled ¡°Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan¡± ¨C was retracted after his exploration of a manga comic genre depicting sexual encounters involving children was condemned as ¡°morally offensive¡±.

The Swedish researcher has never spoken publicly about the saga, but in a new book, Impossibly Cute Boys: The Healing Power of Shota Comics in Japan, he claims that he had received nothing but praise for his paper prior to publication.

The convener of a PhD course in ¡°queer autoethnography¡± where the paper was drafted praised it as a ¡°wonderfully written, reflective, analytical and intriguing essay on masturbation ¡®in the field¡¯¡±, adding: ¡°This is already very publishable, should you so desire. Bravo,¡± Mr Andersson recounts.

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He says that his own supervisor praised it as ¡°pretty damn good¡±, describing it as his ¡°best piece of writing¡±, while it was positively received on submission to the Sage journal Qualitative Research, with one reviewer stating that the rationale for using masturbation as a method was ¡°well justified¡±, adding: ¡°The author has conducted provocative research by use of a highly bold and innovative application of autoethnography. Best of all, the author has done this extremely well.¡±

However, after the published paper made headlines around the world, it was pulled by Sage, which said it ¡°legitimises sexual activity involving sexually graphic illustrated images of children¡± and had ¡°potential to cause significant harm¡±, while Manchester ¨C which had funded Mr Andersson¡¯s PhD ¨C expelled him after ruling that he had caused ¡°significant reputational harm¡± to the university.

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Mr Andersson, who writes that he is now an independent researcher, claims that he fell victim to ¡°ill-willed and homophobic reports¡± by the media and accusations from ¡°the mob¡± on social media, with ¡°otherwise rational academics¡± joining in as an act of ¡°groupthink¡±.

But Michelle Shipworth, an associate professor in UCL¡¯s Energy Institute who was an early critic of the paper, said it was concerning ¨C and telling ¨C that nobody had challenged Mr Andersson¡¯s research topic or methods.

¡°Academia is becoming more attitudinally homogenous and, at the same time, more censorious, making it increasingly dangerous for academics to argue against a view they believe is widely held,¡± she said. ¡°This creates a risky environment vulnerable to both accidents and exploitation.¡±

Manchester said that it had conducted a ¡°robust¡± investigation into the ¡°significant concerns¡± around Mr Andersson¡¯s work.

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A Sage spokesperson said:?¡°Together with the editors of the journal, we retracted the article after an investigation determined that there was a lack of institutional ethical oversight and a lack of adequate and appropriate ethical review ahead of publication.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com