American Campus Podcast

ft. Geronimo, both Roosevelt presidents, Franz Boas, and the phrenologists References and suggested readings: Rachel Morgan. 2024. Sins of the Shovel: Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology . University of Chicago Press.  John Fowler. 2021. A Forest in the Clouds . Pegasus Books. Follow Rachel Morgan on Instagram at @adventures_in_archaeology Text the show here! Support the sho...

On hedge funds, private equity, and the financialization of public colleges. References and suggested readings: The Coalition Against Campus Debt. 2024. Lend and Rule: Fighting the Financialization of Public Universities . Common Notions Press.  Sofya Aptekar’s faculty page sofyaaptekar.com   Robin D. G. Kelley. 2022. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (20th anniversary edition). Beacon...

How public universities gave rise to public media References and suggested readings: Josh Shepperd. 2023. Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting . University of Illinois Press. Laura Garbes. 2025. Listeners Like Who: Exclusion and Resistance in the Public Radio Industry . Princeton University Press. Katherine Jewell. 2023. Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio ....

Does your campus use B&N Education or Follett? References and suggested readings: Katya Schwenk. September 10, 2025. “ How Wall Street Broke the College Bookstore .” LeverNews.com. Vincent Bevins. 2020. The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World . PublicAffairs. levernews.com   Text the show here! Support the show Browse the Am...

On blood money and “the moral costs of an elite education.” References and suggested readings: David S. Busch. 2025. Disciplining Democracy: How the Modern American University Transformed Student Activism . Cornell University Press.  Ethan Schrum. 2019. The Instrumental University: Education in Service of the National Agenda after World War II . Cornell University Press. Julie A. Reuben. 1996. The...

Can US colleges be decolonized? References and suggested readings: Sandy Grande. 2018. “ Refusing the University .” Free PDF. Sandy Grande. 2016. Red Pedagogy . Free PDF. ACP episodes on Indigeneity and the university with Sharon Stein and Eve L. Ewing Robin D. G. Kelley. March 1, 2016. “ Black Study, Black Struggle .” The Boston Review .  “ Board of Trustees agreement shows hope for UConn-Indigen...

And how to approach an acquisitions editor References: Association of University Presses and #AskUp Steven L. Herman. 2024. Behind the White House Curtain . Kent State University Press. Madeleine L'Engle. 1980. A Swiftly Tilting Planet . J. R. R. Tolkien. The Hobit . Robert M. Veatch and Lainie F. Ross. 2016. Defining Death: The Case for Choice . Georgetown University Press. Kent State UP on...

Tuskegee, Alabama, the center of modernity in the Black Global South References and suggested readings: Jarvis McInnis. 2025. Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South . Columbia University Press.  Zora Neale Hurston. Mules and Men . Zora Neale Herston. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica . Jesmyn Ward. 2024. Let Us Descend . Brea Baker. 2024...

From college radical to rightwing organizer, the 3-D life and education of The Man Who Invented Conservatism. References and suggested readings: Daniel J. Flynn. 2025. The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer . Encounter Books.  P. G. Wodehouse books American Spectator, spectator.org   Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

References mentioned this episode: Eve Darian-Smith. 2025. Policing Higher Education: The Antidemocratic Attack on Scholars and Why It Matters . Johns Hopkins University Press. OPEN ACCESS PDF Find out more about the Scholars at Risk network Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

Are you on the Professor Watchlist? References mentioned this episode: Matthew Boedy. 2025. The Seven Mountains Mandate: Inside the Sweeping Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy . WJK Books. Janisse Ray. 2022. The Woods of Fannin County . Matthew Boedy on YouTube Matthew Boedy on Twitter AAUP guide: how to respond to Turning Point USA on your campus Text the show here! Support the sh...

A DEI victory Mississippi! Plus, JT Thomas explains what's wrong with Diversity, Inc. References and suggested readings: James M. Thomas. 2020. Diversity Regimes: Why Talk Is Not Enough to Fix Racial Inequality at Universities . Rutgers University Press.  James M. Thomas. 2023. The Souls of Jewish Folks: W. E. B. Du Bois, Anti-Semitism, and the Color Line . University of Georgia Press. James...

From tolerance to land acknowledgements. References mentioned this episode: Nimisha Barton. 2024. A Just Future: Getting from Diversity and Inclusion to Equity and Justice in Higher Education . Cornell University Press. Nimisha Barton’s website James M. Thomas. 2020. Diversity Regimes: Why Talk is Not Enough to Fix Racial Inequality at Universities . Rutgers University Press. Will Kymlica. 2007. M...

The Chicago boys would have loved digital assets.  References and suggested readings: Alan Blinder and Steven Rich. August 25, 2025. The Typical College Student Is Not Who You Think . New York Times . (Strongly recommend reading the comments) Teddy Gania. March 19, 2025. UChicago Lost Money On Crypto, Then Froze Research When Federal Funding Was Cut . The Stanford Review . Richard J. Evans. 2005....

College, a nice time for nice ladies. References mentioned this episode: Samuel Rutherford. 2025. Teaching Gender: The British University and the Rise of Heterosexuality, 1860–1939 . Oxford University Press.  Sam’s website with a trans history reading list and a student handout for how to read in graduate level courses Emily Cousens. 2025. Virginia Prince, Robert Stoller and the Trans Feminist Int...

A human history of ed tech References mentioned this episode: Anne Trumbore. 2025. The Teacher in the Machine: A Human History of Education Technology . Princeton University Press. Anne Trumbore’s website Anne Trumbore’s LinkedIn Timothy Burke. August 7, 2025. Academia: GPT University . Eight by Seven . Han Kang. 2025. We Do Not Part . Hogarth. Translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris. Text...

On making our academic writing a little more reader friendly. References mentioned this episode: Laura Portwood-Stacer. 2025. Make Your Manuscript Work: A Guide to Developmental Editing for Scholarly Writers . Princeton University Press. Laura Portwood-Stacer. 2021. The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors . Princeton University Press. LauraPortwoodStacer.com Manuscript Works Newslett...

And, do US academics face a similar situation today? References mentioned this episode: Frank Stahnisch. 2025. Great Minds in Despair: The Forced Migration of German-Speaking Neuroscientists to North America, 1933 to 1989 . McGill-Queen’s University Press. Susan E. Cayleff. 2016. Nature's Path: A History of Naturopathic Healing in America . Johns Hopkins University Press. Christopher Lawrence...

We forgot to mention Bob Jones was the son of a Confederate veteran. References mentioned this episode: Adam Laats’s website Adam Laats. April 28, 2025. Trump Is Out for Revenge . The Chronicle of Higher Education . Jim Fraser. 2025. Religion and the American University . Johns Hopkins University Press. Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

On the creation of the statistical tests we often use in human behavioral research, especially in the fields of psychology, education, economics, and political science. References mentioned this episode: Akira O’Connor and Erin Robbins. 2024. Colonised Minds: Narratives that Shape Psychology . Sage. Akira O’Connor’s website: aoc.omg.lol Resources from Culture Club Text the show here! Support the s...

From Johnson’s Great Society to Clinton’s crime bill, Reiko Hillyer discusses the “rise and fall” of higher education in US prisons. Plus, she shares her experience as a professor who teaches in prisons. References mentioned this episode: Reiko Hillyer. 2024. A Wall is Just a Wall: The Permeability of the Prison in 20th Century America . Duke University Press. Piper Hutchinson. May 2, 2025. “ Guts...

Louisiana State Penitentiary, a former plantation known simply as “Angola," is a site of higher education. Journalist Piper Hutchinson explains.  References mentioned this episode: Piper Hutchinson. May 2, 2025. “ Guts, glory and opportunity on the outside .” Louisiana Illuminator . Piper Hutchinson’s Substack: Louisiana Higher Ed Weekly This is a crawfish Daniel Bergner. God of the Rodeo: Th...

In 2025, 45 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in college debt. Ellie Shermer explains: “the story of skyrocketing college debt is not merely one of good intentions gone wrong. In fact, the federal student loan program was never supposed to make college affordable.”  References mentioned this episode: Elizabeth Tandy Shermer. 2021. Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Le...

That degree. References mentioned this episode: Erik Baker. 2025. Make Your Own Job: The Entrepreneurial Work Ethic in Modern America . Harvard University Press. Erik Baker’s website Simon Callow’s Orson Welles series The Drift  magazine Follow Erik on Twitter @erikmbaker and Bluesky @erikmbaker.bsky.social   Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

First, a continuation of the Chicago school of economics history (a nice follow up to last week’s episode on Charles Walgreen and UChicago ), then David Austin Walsh explains the reactionary foundations of law and economics as backlash to the field of critical legal studies. References mentioned this episode: David Austin Walsh. 2024. Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Righ...