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Professor Nigel Biggar is an ethicist and theologian at the University of Oxford.
In 2017, he had an article published that suggested Britain's colonial legacy had causes for both pride and shame, and that the benefits of colonisation should not be erased by feelings of guilt.
The backlash and criticism was almost instant - his ideas were rejected, he was denounced as a racist and white supremacist by some groups both online and in academic circles, and the experience left him feeling like an important conversation was being shut down by culture wars.
He is now the chair of the Free Speech Union in the United Kingdom and was recently hosted by the New Zealand Free Speech Union as the keynote speaker at their AGM over the weekend.
Professor Biggar spoke to Emile Donovan about how he found himself at the forefront of the free speech debate and why issues of free speech are so fraught in the internet age.
University of Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar was keynote speaker at the New Zealand Free Speech Union's AGM this year. Photo: SUPPLIED