Simon Burgess, a lecturer at East Surrey College, is facing serious disciplinary action (and possible redundancy) for introducing students to the work of photographic artist Del LaGrace Volcano.

Management are claiming it is pornography, salacious, grotesque, worthless and not relevant to, or appropriate for 2nd year level 3 photography students preparing for higher study.

Apart from being censorious, backward, and homophobic, management's stance displays a remarkable ignorance of contemporary debates and image-making strategies. This is a serious matter that has implications for all academics, teachers, and students, and we would be very grateful for an email expressing your support for Simon, and offering your expert opinion on the relevance of Del's work to contemporary debates and practices, his status as an international transgender artist, etc.

All emails should be sent to Eugenie Shinkle (shinkle@wmin.ac.uk), and she will forward them on to the appropriate person. We're under a bit of time pressure as his hearing has been scheduled for August 17th.