University Archives - Public Seminar

Higher Ed

The Burned-Over District: The Horses of Instruction and the Tygers of Wrath

Must the university resign itself to the fact that the liberal ethos at the heart of intellectual inquiry rarely informs our political convictions?

September 11, 2025 • by Jonathan Veitch

Genocide; Zionism; antisemitism; settler colonialism; structural racism; apartheid. "Divest now!"; "Hamas, we love you! We support your rockets too!"; "Anyone who sympathizes with Hamas is an antisemite"; "Red, black, green, and white, we support Hamas's fight"; "Globalize the intifada"; "Using Gazans as a human shield is a war crime"; "From the ...

The Burned-Over District: The Horses of Instruction and the Tygers of Wrath

Education

Ukrainian Studies Struggle Against Imperial Heritage

Preserving identity

September 26, 2024 • by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the international community rallied behind Ukrainians’ determination to defend their country. Vital financial aid was accompanied by efforts to better understand a nation that did not surrender in the face of the Russian military forces that overwhelmingly surpassed the ...

Ukrainian Studies Struggle Against Imperial Heritage

Democracy

Are Universities Bad for Democracy?

We need a revolution, not only against how we train students to think but also, “more importantly, against what we, as humans, ultimately are.”

April 12, 2023 • by Benjamin P. Davis

Business schools obviously train students to see the world in terms of commodities. But what about the rest of the university? ...

Higher Ed

The American University of Afghanistan and Me

At a moment of tragedy and upheaval, sociologist Jeffrey Goldfarb found new colleagues and students on the internet

February 22, 2023 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I am teaching at the American University of Afghanistan in exile....

The American University of Afghanistan and Me

New York City

In Search of a Room of My Own

In New York City’s cutthroat housing market, a student finds refuge in an all-women building

February 8, 2023 • by Yasmin Arquiza

As more and more women enter higher education, however, the need for female-friendly spaces shows that places like Webster are more relevant than ever....

Interviews

The University Ate My Neighborhood

A conversation with urbanist and cultural historian Davarian L. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

February 15, 2022 • by Davarian L. Baldwin and Claire Potter

Claire Potter sat down with urbanist Davarian L. Baldwin to discuss his new book, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities (Bold Type Books, 2021), to hash out what these relationships do to reshape our cities....

Education

In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower

In this excerpt, Davarian L. Baldwin introduces his new book, The Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

February 15, 2022 • by Davarian L. Baldwin

I never thought a university would foretell the future of our cities. But there I was, on a December afternoon in 2003, stepping out into the brisk South Side air after hours holed away in the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library. I immediately heard chants of protest and saw people ...

Education

Sincerely, A Very Famous Man

Or, why academics should dispense with letters of recommendation entirely

December 20, 2021 • by Claire Potter

The letter of recommendation also shows us, in microcosm, how elite institutions—universities, foundations, humanities centers, think tanks—gate-keep for each other....

Film & Performing Arts

Faculty TeeVee

In the Netflix series The Chair, Sandra Oh is charged with a Sisyphean task: an English department faculty in decline. Spoiler alerts!

August 20, 2021 • by Claire Potter

_____ It’s such a setup, and one of Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim’s colleagues knows it. As Dr. Kim settles into her office as the first woman—the first woman of color, no less—to chair the English department at the fictional Pembroke University, a package awaits her. It is a nameplate for her desk which ...

Media

Jessica Krug and Racial Identity Theft

Past Present Podcast, Episode 246

September 15, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: George Washington University historian Jessica Krug has been posing as a Black woman for years, and recently outed herself online. Neil referred to Martha Sandweiss’ book, Passing Strange: A Gilded Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line. Natalia ...

Higher Ed

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor

Freedom to think for oneself is still a right, not a privilege

July 16, 2020 • by Joshua T. Katz

In Congress, on July 4, 1776, came the “unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Signed by 56 men, many of whom were considered national heroes just a few minutes ago, it opens with a long and elegant sentence whose first words every American child knows, or used ...

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor

Education

How Elite Institutions Can Prove That Black Lives Matter

Emotional labor & the limits of interpersonal diversity work

July 2, 2020 • by Gaga Gondwe

I have been a lone Black face in mostly white spaces for most of my life. I went to college at Harvard, and law school at Yale; I clerked for a federal judge, and worked at a top law firm. I will soon embark on a new adventure, becoming a ...

University

The Burned-Over District: The Horses of Instruction and the Tygers of Wrath

Must the university resign itself to the fact that the liberal ethos at the heart of intellectual inquiry rarely informs our political convictions?

Ukrainian Studies Struggle Against Imperial Heritage

Preserving identity

Are Universities Bad for Democracy?

We need a revolution, not only against how we train students to think but also, “more importantly, against what we, as humans, ultimately are.”

The American University of Afghanistan and Me

At a moment of tragedy and upheaval, sociologist Jeffrey Goldfarb found new colleagues and students on the internet

In Search of a Room of My Own

In New York City’s cutthroat housing market, a student finds refuge in an all-women building

The University Ate My Neighborhood

A conversation with urbanist and cultural historian Davarian L. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower

In this excerpt, Davarian L. Baldwin introduces his new book, The Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

Sincerely, A Very Famous Man

Or, why academics should dispense with letters of recommendation entirely

Faculty TeeVee

In the Netflix series The Chair, Sandra Oh is charged with a Sisyphean task: an English department faculty in decline. Spoiler alerts!

Jessica Krug and Racial Identity Theft

Past Present Podcast, Episode 246

A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor

Freedom to think for oneself is still a right, not a privilege

How Elite Institutions Can Prove That Black Lives Matter

Emotional labor & the limits of interpersonal diversity work

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