A Cambridge academic has gone on strike after claiming that a porter’s refusal to call her “doctor” is racist.

Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a fellow specialising in postcolonial literature, is refusing to teach students at King’s College after experiencing what she described as “consistently racist aggression and profiling” from the college’s porters.

The lecturer announced her decision after an altercation with a porter on Monday.

She described on Twitter how she told him: "Please address me as Dr Gopal", to which the porter responded: "I don't care who you are."

"He then launched into a tirade about how people treat him," Dr Gopal said. "I am sorry but my brown body isn't taking the hit for that. He'd never talk like this to actual white men who behave badly."

She described how she then repeatedly asked the “all white, all male” porters to address her as “Dr Gopal”, but they instead insisted on calling her “Madam”.

Dr Gopal, who is from India, said: “With deep regret but with 17 years of consideration behind it, I have finally decided on my behalf and of other people of colour at Cambridge University to refuse to supervise any students at King’s College.”

She went on to say: “Enough is enough of the consistently racist profiling and aggression by porters”, adding that “hundreds of stories abound over the years … If you can’t be polite to me at the gate, I can’t do any work for you.”