What is the state of academic history? Take a look at the latest issue of the American Historical Review, the flagship journal of the academic discipline. It doesn’t publish bread-and-butter research articles; those go to specialist journals and fill published essay collections. Instead, its articles illustrate entire schools of historiography, using research as an entrée … Continue reading “Peer-Reviewed History is Dying of Wokeness”
Politicians and activists are making increasingly strident claims that democracy is under attack and that democratic norms are being threatened. Yet, when it comes to the true point of democracy—namely, the voting public determining public policy—the biggest threat is a subtle one. There’s an increasing tendency in mature democracies to outsource policy decisions to “non-partisan … Continue reading “Academic Expertise and the Principal-Agent Problem”
Last month, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released a report accusing the North Carolina General Assembly and the UNC Board of Governors of “political interference” at UNC-Chapel Hill and across the UNC System. As the Martin Center predicted in October, the report is a clear hit job on people and policies that its … Continue reading “The UNC Board of Governors Has Always Been Political”
Americans’ trust in higher education is wavering. Back in 2018, a Pew Research Center survey found that about 61 percent of Americans think that the higher education system is going in the wrong direction. And a Gallup poll from the same year revealed that only 48 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite … Continue reading “Did You Know? Americans’ Views of College Professors”
I’m sometimes asked why it is so difficult for PhD students of a conservative bent to survive and flourish in history graduate programs these days. It’s not enough to say that conservative graduate students are red drops in a blue ocean, surrounded by people who hold political views antithetical to theirs. I have taught at … Continue reading “How to Renew Traditional Historical Study in Graduate Schools”
Fordham University student Austin Tong has found himself in hot water over a protest picture on Instagram. In it, he posed with a gun to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The private university in New York City found that Tong’s post, as well as another where he criticized the response of … Continue reading “Did You Know? Students, Faculty Punished for Speech on Social Media”
After ten years, the program in philosophy, politics, and economics is growing well at both universities.