Who is Kate Sang? Science Secretary Michelle Donelan pays damages to professor after accusing her of sympathizing with Hamas

UK Science Secretary Michelle Donelan had to pay a disclosed sum of money to Professor Kate Sang after falsely accusing her and her colleague of sharing extremist views and sympathizing with Hamas. On March 5, Michelle Donelan retracted her statement against the two professors, a sentiment she first expressed in October by tweeting a letter she had written to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

According to The Guardian, the UKRI, which had recently appointed Kate Sang and Dr Kamna Patel to its advisory group on equality, diversity and inclusion, suspended the academics while it held an internal investigation.

Kate Sang is a professor of Gender and Employment Studies at Edinburgh Business School in Heriot Watt University. She has worked on several research projects and has also penned many research papers.

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Kate Sang was appointed director for the Centre for Research on Employment, Work and the Professions in 2020

According to her profile on the Heriot Watt website, Kate Sang was appointed the director for the Centre for Research on Employment, Work and the Professions - an interdisciplinary research centre, on August 1, 2020.

As a professor of Gender and Employment Studies, she aims to improve people's marginalized careers through her research, with a special focus on women and disabled people's careers.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from the University of Dundee with an MRes in civil engineering and earned her PhD in construction management at Loughborough University.

She started her career as a sessional lecturer at Loughborough University, slowly working her way up as a research associate at the same university before switching to Heriot Watt, where she is currently employed.

According to her website, Kate Sang's teaching includes issues faced by "the contemporary workforce including gender inequalities, disability, migration, human trafficking, critical race theory and work-life interactions."

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Michelle Donelan pays damages after Kate Sang's libel action

According to The Guardian, Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, has apologzied and paid for damages and legal cost after accusing Kate Sang and Kamna Patel of “sharing extremist views.”

Donelan's initial complaint to the UKRI included a tweet of Sang that said "This is disturbing" in reference to an October article by The Guardian with the headline “Suella Braverman urges police to crack down on Hamas support in UK.”

After looking into the issue, the UKRI came to the conclusion that neither Sang nor Patel had any affiliations with extremist material nor was there any evidence of them being Hamas sympathizers. Issuing a statement on X, Donelan said:

“I am grateful for Professor Sang’s clarification, and I am pleased to withdraw my original concerns in relation to this specific tweet. I fully accept that she is not an extremist, a supporter of Hamas or any other proscribed organisation and I note that an independent investigation has concluded that there was no evidence that she is.”

As per The Independent, Sang also released a statement claiming that she was "delighted" that the issue reached a conclusion but was "very disturbed" by how Donelan and the UKRI acted. She also accused the Science Secretary of making "a cheap political point" at her expense and causing "serious damage" to the professor's reputation.

Dr Kamna Patel described the experience as "distressing", but affirmed that she was "glad" the process was concluded.