A CONTROVERSIAL academic who gained global fame as a strident anti-feminist is to deliver a lecture in Scotland on his latest book.

Jordan Peterson, a Professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, will appear at at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow to discuss his best-selling book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

Prof Peterson has attracted criticism for his stance on gender politics and has been accused of using social media to spread abusive misogyny.

He reportedly said that feminists have supported Muslims because they have “an unconscious wish for brutal male domination”, and referred to developing nations as “pits of catastrophe”.

Among other topics, he has attacked the Disney film Frozen for being feminist propaganda.

However, his self-help guide has become hugely popular and has been endorsed by online celebrities with a massive following among young people, especially teenage boys.

Peterson has been described as “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now” by David Brooks of the New York Times. But he has also been described as a right-wing reactionary.

Earlier this year Channel 4 journalist Cathy Newman challenged Peterson’s arguments over male and female behaviour. Following the interview, Newman was subjected to such a barrage of online abuse - including death threats - from his followers that police were called in. Peterson insisted he tried to stop the abuse.

Newman later told the Guardian: “I wasn’t prepared for the torrent of abuse after [the Peterson interview]. People say: ‘Why don’t you just block them?’ But there were literally thousands of abusive tweets – it was a semi-organised campaign.”

She added: “I’ve thought of coming off social media because why should I have to deal with all this crap? It’s too time-consuming, but why should I or any woman be silenced? It gives the trolls exactly what they want.” Peterson has 790,000 followers on Twitter and nearly a million YouTube subscribers.

The audience is invited to take part in a question and answer session after the lecture and “leave feeling better about the world”.

He will be at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow on Saturday 27 October.