Philippine academic accuses NUS of dropping her from event over links to Singapore historian husband Thum Ping Tjin

For its part, NUS said on November 23 that the details of the event were “still evolving” until November 2 when Iglesias was told by NUS that she did not make the final panel of speakers.

The university did not reply to follow-up questions on why flight and accommodation details had already been discussed with Iglesias – as seen by TODAY in the email correspondence between the two parties – and why an NUS staff member had apparently told her the confirmed event dates.

Iglesias, 46, is an associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman, based in Quezon City. She has a doctorate and a Master’s degree from NUS, where she also earned a few academic awards, according to her curriculum vitae.

Before that, he had crossed swords with Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in 2018 during a Parliamentary Select Committee for Deliberate Online Falsehoods that was convened to study the problem of online falsehoods and how to deal with them.

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In a post on online publishing platform Medium dated November 11, Iglesias said that she was “disinvited … without any official explanation” from NUS to speak at an event entitled “Global Research Forum: Towards a Public Asian Studies” scheduled for January.

In the post, she wrote that a colleague from NUS had invited her in March and later confirmed the dates, draft programme and other issues before calling her on November 2, saying that her participation had been rejected, without further explanation.

“My colleague told me that the only reason he could think of was my association with PJ (her husband), but he did not know for certain,” she wrote in the post, without naming the colleague.

Iglesias said that while what had happened to her was “relatively minor”, she was making it public to speak out against what she claimed was “part of a broader pattern” at NUS and “to respect and uphold academic freedom”.

In reply to TODAY’s questions regarding Iglesias’ post on Medium, an NUS spokesperson said on November 23: “Dr Sol Iglesias was approached as a possible panel speaker at the Global Research Forum, planned for January 2024.

“Up to earlier this month, the conference details were still evolving. On November 2, 2023, we reached out to Dr Iglesias to convey that she did not make the final line-up of speakers,” the spokesperson added.

NUS’ statement did not answer TODAY’s queries on the reason behind the disinvitation, whether it had anything to do with Thum as claimed by Iglesias, the university’s guidelines when it comes to inviting speakers for an event and which other speakers, if any, were disinvited.

In exchanges with TODAY over email on November 24, after NUS issued its statement, Iglesias gave a timeline from when she was apparently invited by her colleague to the point when she was dropped from the event, supported by some email correspondence.

Iglesias said that her contact from NUS had asked her over email in March if she was interested to take part in a conference organised by the NUS Asian studies department. She redacted the person’s name in the emails shown to TODAY, but said that he is a faculty member of the Southeast Asian Studies department.

“On June 14, he wrote that the proposed panel had been accepted, and that the conference organisers wanted confirmation that the speakers, myself included, were able to come based on two sets of tentative dates,” she said.

A follow-up email was sent to her in August to put her in touch with another NUS staff member to discuss flight and accommodation matters. The NUS staff member asked Iglesias for her personal details and travelling documents, among other things.

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In October, the NUS staff member told Iglesias that the event dates were confirmed, the time she was scheduled to speak, and that he would inform her “once HR (human resource department) gives the go-ahead”.

Iglesias said: “My personal information was exchanged for purposes of reimbursement, and a final go-ahead to book the flights was all I was waiting for.”

On November 2, an email showed Iglesias’ unnamed contact from NUS asking to speak to her by telephone.

Iglesias said that nobody besides her contact has reached out to her to give her more information about the episode.

She also sent TODAY a copy of the draft programme for the two-day event, which showed five panel discussions and four round tables, comprising numerous local and regional academics, including Iglesias.

“While I do not question that NUS can of course decide whatever it wants in organising important international research events, it is reasonable for outsiders to assume that NUS follows global higher education norms, whereby such decisions are made on academic grounds,” she said.

“My sudden disinvitation without any clear explanation – and nothing in writing until this statement [by NUS on November 23] – remains a vexing mystery since the panel organiser confirmed my participation by email on August 21.”

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When contacted by TODAY for responses to what Iglesias had raised, the university said it would not make any further comment after its initial statement.

On Friday, the All UP Academic Employees Union, a body representing academic staff at the University of the Philippines, put up a Facebook post expressing “dismay” at the conduct of NUS and supporting Iglesias.

The union urged NUS to demonstrate fairness and accountability in interacting with their Southeast Asian peers, and called upon other guests of the forum in January to “reconsider their own participation in the conference”.