American Campus Podcast

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...

Professors teaching about communism and socialism? Un-American! Here’s some cash to make sure the university is preaching the supreme American virtue: capitalism.  If you caught our joint episode with the In Bed with the Right podcast in May 2025, you heard me give the TLDR version of the story of pharmacy magnate Charles Walgreen and the University of Chicago. But the case deserves a full episode...

Freshman hazing, a time honored tradition of (at least) 1,500 years. References mentioned this episode: Hannah Skoda. 2025. Frying Pans, Limpets, Donkeys and Becs-jaunes: Thinking about Violence in Late Medieval Universities . Global Intellectual History .  Hannah Skoda’s website   Medieval Murder Maps   Samantha Harvey. 2018. The Western Wind: A Novel . Penguin Random House. BBC’s History Extra P...

From Kant to CRT via Columbia and UC Irvine. References mentioned this episode: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 3rd edition . W. W. Norton. Miquel de Palol. 2023. The Garden of Seven Twilights . Translated by Adrian Nathan West. Dalkey Archive Press. PDF: Immanuel Kant. 1784. An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? 1992 translation by Ted Humphrey. Hackett Publishing. Join...

On the eugenics origins of the IQ test and why we're still using it in 2025. References mentioned this episode: Pepper Stetler. 2024. A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test . Diversion Books. Pepper Stetler. May 8, 2025. Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests . LA Review of Books . Michelle Adams. 2025. The Containment. Detroit, the Supreme Court,...

Sam Tanenhaus joins me for a deep dive into the college career of friend of the pod, William F. Buckley Jr., and his 1951 shot that fired the campus wars: God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom." References mentioned this episode: Sam Tanenhaus. 2025. Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America . Penguin Random House. Sam Tanenhaus. 1998. Whittaker Cham...

How does a librarian kill someone with a newspaper? This and other academic spycraft in Elyse Graham's Book and Dagger . References mentioned this episode: Elyse Graham. 2024. Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II . Harper Collins. Elyse Graham’s website Elyse Graham’s Bluesky Michelle Young. 2025. The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of...

Richard T. Greener was the first Black graduate of Harvard College in 1870. Greener went on to be a professor, lawyer, dean of Howard University law school, diplomat, and a celebrated intellectual of the Reconstruction era. Christian K. Anderson takes us through Greener's remarkable career in academia and international politics. Links to references in the episode: Christian Anderson. 2022. Th...

Check out my interview with Sasha Lilley for Against the Grain podcast. We talk about Resistance from the Right , which you can grab a copy of here .  References mentioned this episode: Lauren Lassabe Shepherd. 2023. Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America . University of North Carolina Press.  Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus b...

We're headed South with Kate Ballantyne to talk about the Old Left! Plus, Kate's tips for conducting archival research. To join the student activism researchers Google group, send me an email: shephell@iu.edu . References mentioned this episode: Katherine J. Ballantyne. 2024. Radical Volunteers: Dissent, Desegregation, and Student Power in Tennessee . University of Georgia Press. Harriet...

From the conception of ROTC after the Spanish-American War, colleges and K12 schools have been central to US military recruitment efforts. Scott Harding, Charles Howlett, and Seth Kershner explain the history of school militarism, and how peace groups have tried to break the war habit in American education. References mentioned this episode: Scott Harding, Charles Howlett and Seth Kershner. 2022....

Is the Title IX process working as intended? Nicole Bedera tells us what's working, what isn't, and what we can do about it. References mentioned this episode: Nicole Bedera. 2024. On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Assault . University of California Press. Classroom resources to accompany On the Wrong Side Nicole Bedera’s website Text...

On today’s episode, we’re covering the history and purposes of the first American research universities, Indian boarding schools, and Historically Black Colleges, all of which emerged at the same time in US history. References mentioned this episode: Eve L. Ewing. 2025. The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism . Penguin Random House. Will Guidara. 202...

Within and beyond the academy, Karl Marx remains a specter who assumes quite different shapes from his friends and enemies. According to Andrew Hartman, Marx himself wouldn't recognize many of the various derivatives or criticisms of his work. Hartman guides us back into the late 20th century classroom to meet Marx's academic friends and enemies.  References mentioned this episode: Andre...

It was my great pleasure to join friends of the pod, Moira Donegan and Adrian Daub (who you'll remember from our Cancel Culture Panic episode ), for a deep dive into the history of the trustees. Be sure to check out and subscribe to their excellent podcast, In Bed with the Right. Follow along with IBWTR, Adrian, and Moira: Listen and subscribe to In Bed with the Right on Spotify , Apple , Pat...

Believe it or not, an English degree is still worth pursuing in a capitalist economy, even if one is not independently wealthy! Of this we can be hopeful according to a new book called Major Trade-offs by Corey Moss-Pech. References mentioned this episode: Corey Moss-Pech. 2025. Major Trade-offs: The Surprising Truths about College Majors & Entry-Level Jobs . University of Chicago Press. Rober...

Jennifer Leigh discusses the academy's struggle to accommodate learners and workers with disabilities, mental health challenges, and neurodivergences--especially since the Covid-19 pandemic. We talk about how US ed-tech companies take advantage of disability and mental health accommodations to exploit student and faculty intellectual property. References mentioned this episode: Jennifer Leigh...

The college dormitory is an American tradition, though it hasn’t always been necessary for education. Carla Yanni tells us why the dorm has become a feature of campus architecture since the 17th century. References mentioned this episode: Carla Yanni. 2019. Living on Campus: An Architectural History of the American Dormitory . University of Minnesota Press. Carla Yanni’s faculty page Text the show...

Matt Seybold takes us back to Knobs University, a fictional HBCU imagined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 novel, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today . Drawing parallels from the novel and its HBCU, Matt helps us see how we're living through our own second Gilded Age, a post-capitalist era of technofeudalism. References mentioned this episode: The American Vandal   Podcast Th...

On the medical school building boom of the early 20th century (1890-1940), and what it can tell us about the professionalization of academic medicine Mentioned this episode: Katherine L. Carroll. 2022. Building Schools, Making Doctors: Architecture and the Modern American Physician . University of Pittsburgh Press. Amber N. Wiley. 2025. Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Educatio...

Deirdre Clemente on the timeless campus style: casual. Deirdre Clemente. 2014. Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style . University of North Carolina Press. John Izzo. 2007. The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die . Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Text the show here! Support the show Browse the American Campus bookshelf

Tim Lacy lets us in on all things Great Books: champions, curriculums, and controversies. Tim Lacy. 2013. The Dream of a Democratic Culture: Mortimer J. Adler and the Great Books Idea . Palgrave Macmillan. Daniel Wickberg. 2024. A History of American Thought 1860–2000: Thinking the Modern . Routledge. Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen. 2019. Ideas that Made America: A Brief History . Oxford University Pr...