James Ceaser, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, makes some important points about intellectual inquiry in this piece at The National Review. I found this section useful: Begin with higher education, the institution traditionally charged with presenting...
academic life
“Students will be seated one fallen statue of a historical figure apart. As statues are the only way we learn history, this will also remove the need for students to buy books.”
McSweeney’s strikes again! Check out Bethany Keenan’s “Discipline-Specific Guidelines For Classroom Social Distancing.” Here are a few: History Students will be seated one fallen statue of a historical figure apart. As statues are the only way we learn history, this...
Why American Universities are Failing
Political scientist David Schultz of Hamline University offers a scathing critique of the American university in his recent piece at CounterPunch. This hits close to home. A taste: American universities are failing. They are private or public schools. They could...
The State of the History Job Market
The number of full-time faculty jobs in history has declined over the past year, but the history job market appears to be stabilizing. The number of Ph.D.s in history is dropping. Here is Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed: The new...
Alan Dershowitz on the Academic Margins
Alan Dershowitz‘s case against the removal of Donald Trump may have won over many GOP Senators during the president’s impeachment trial, but it has failed to convince law professors, legal scholars, and historians. At one point during the trial, Dershowtiz...
Historians and the Work of Translation
I just finished Houghton College political scientist Peter Meilaender’s essay “Crossed Lines: The Importance of Translation in an Era of Growing Political Indifference.” The piece, which appears in the Michaelmas 2019 issue of The Cresset, really resonated with me. It is...
The Academic Who Works 100 Hours a Week
It is Cambridge University classicist Mary Beard. Here is a taste of an article about her workload at The Guardian: Must be a tiring life. It evidently is. On Saturday night, she asked other academics to share how many hours...
Garry Wills on Patriarchy and the Discrimination of Women in the Academy
Historian and writer Garry Wills has seen a lot in his day. His has been observing the academic world for six decades. In his recent revealing piece in The New York Review of Books, Wills reflects on the role of women...
Should Junior Scholars Write for the Public?
Sarah Bond of the University of Iowa History Department and Kevin Gannon (aka “The Tattooed Prof”) of the Grandview University History Department help junior faculty decide if they should write for public audiences. I am glad to see the reference...
An Accidental Professor
I love reading stories of professors raised in working-class families. I thus need to read Jennine Capo Crucet’s recent book My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education. The Atlantic is running a piece based on the book. Here is...
Are Scholarly Conferences Accessible to Non-Academic Employers?
Ben Dumbauld, director of content at the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, does not think so. I think his recent piece at The Chronicle of the Higher Education is worth considering. Here is a taste: I work for a nonprofit organization that...
A Historian Writes a Savage Obituary for Another Historian
Historian Norman Stone died on June 19, 2019. Apparently, obituary-writer and fellow historian Richard J. Evans was no fan of Stone. Here are few excerpts from Evans’s obituary in The Guardian: The obit begins: One of the specialities of the historian...
Tweet of the Day
Want to bless your co-workers? Before making a comment/asking a question in a meeting, stop and ask yourself, “is this relevant? is this generally applicable? is this meeting the best venue to discuss this topic?” — Thomas S. Kidd (@ThomasSKidd)...
Exiles from Eden
Due to a few things going on in my life right now, I have been thinking again about Mark Schwehn‘s book Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America. This book has been very influential in the way I...
What Makes Your Book Valuable?
How do authors measure the success of their books? Rachel Toor asks this question in a very interesting piece at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Given my history in publishing, people often ask me for help with their book projects. One...
Darryl Hart Weighs-In on the Thomas Kidd-Jonathan Merritt Debate
In case you haven’t heard, Baylor University historian Thomas Kidd and journalist Jonathan Merritt had a debate. Read all about it here. And now Darryl Hart has commented on it. As is usually the case, Darryl manages to throw everyone...
The President of the Master’s University and Seminary Speaks About His Poor Accreditation Report
Earlier today I called your attention to a Chronicle of Higher Education piece on the WASC Senior College and University Commission accreditation report on The Master’s College and Seminary, an evangelical institution run by megachurch pastor John MacArthur. Read it here....
What is Going on at The Master’s University and Seminary?
The Chronicle of Higher Education is calling the WASC Senior College and University Commission’s report on The Masters University and Seminary, a conservative evangelical Christian institution in Santa Clarita, California, “one of the most scathing accreditation reports in recent memory.” As...
Do Students Give Better Evaluations to Faculty Who Grade More Generously?
Nancy Bunge thinks so: Research on student evaluations of teaching suggests that the gender and age bias most colleges pride themselves on avoiding contaminate those evaluations, along with other nonacademic factors — like “sexiness.” Since many institutions of higher learning use these surveys to determine...
Should a Premillennial Dispensational View of the Bible Disqualify a Person from a Teaching Job at a University?
I was sad to hear of the death of Leo Ribuffo. In 1991 or 1992 I wrote him a letter to ask him he was taking graduate students at George Washington University. He never wrote me back, but I was...