The University as Giant App
Theo Baker’s book about Stanford offers a shockingly frank look at a campus that is as tightly governed as a Siberian labor camp—one perhaps designed by Sergey Brin.
Education
Open Letter to UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk
A message from the UCLA Task Force on Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Arab, & Anti-Muslim Racism.
Disaster Capitalism in Higher Education
What happens to local economies when universities downsize or shutter?
Resisting Academic Imperialism: Bad Bunny and the Colonial Logic of Talent
Decolonizing the field of Puerto Rican/Caribbean studies requires validating the knowledge and experience conferred by the universities of the Global South.
Time-Wasting, Truth-Wasting Exercises
Samuel Cohen’s anthology on book banning diagnoses a recent swell in censorship that’s problematic for more reasons than you’d think.
Finding Our God-Terms
The work of literary critic Mark Edmundson offers a powerful vision for recentering the American university.
Social Mobility and Stagnation
How the university entrance exam and residency permits structure life for in China.
On the Receiving End of “Crisis”
Noemí Fierros revisits Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera’s 2023 discussion in light of the current crisis facing college humanities departments.
The Problem of the Parlor
Douglas Dowland close-reads Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant’s new edited volume, “Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century.”
A Trumped-Up Spectacle
James Chandler considers what Roland Barthes’s famous essay about wrestling can tell us about reality and shared illusion in Donald Trump’s Washington.
AI Nightmares: Rise of the Dead Souls
Michael Berry sees warning signs of the creep of AI into education and translation work.
Saving the NEH
Dr. Norrell Edwards considers the Trump administration’s termination of National Endowment for the Humanities grants.
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