New Books in Higher Education

Do we really need universities and colleges anymore? Have they become too politicized? Many conservatives have started to write off American academia. They contend that it is so irremediably, irretrievably woke that the best that those on the right can hope for is to try to advance their ideas and live according to their principles outside it. Other conservatives still in academe just keep their h...

Academia has a big problem. For many parents—especially mothers—the idea of "work-life balance" is a work-life myth. Parents and caregivers work harder than ever to grow and thrive in their careers while juggling the additional responsibilities that accompany parenthood. Sudden disruptions and daily constraints such as breastfeeding, sick days that keep children home from school, and the sleep dep...

For decades, scholars have been calling into question the universality of disciplinary objects and categories. The coherence of defined autonomous categories—such as religion, science, and art—has collapsed under the weight of postmodern critiques, calling into question the possibility of progress and even the value of knowledge. Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm aims to radicalize and move beyond thes...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: the importance of normalizing failure in college the emotional work involved with coming back from a failure the role institutions have in resilience work the power of reflection for student success Our guest is: Dr. Anna Sharpe, Associate Dean for Student Success at Berry College. Dr. Sharpe has spent the last six years reimagining...

Listen to this interview of Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of History of Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and author of The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020). We talk about yesterday today. Jonathan Zimmerman : "Look, I don't think anyone questions that some of the best teaching they do is in their responses to st...

What is the purpose of education? Folks outside the field are likely to think of a relatively clear or concrete answer—learning, citizenship, preparation for life, which for the vast majority encompasses work and skills. Upon probing, however, most are likely to realize that these explanations are deceptively simple. Learning what, how, and according to which or whose values? Citizenship within wh...

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Aviva Legatt’s journey into and through college Why she became an Ivy League college admissions officer What that job taught her about common application missteps How to determine which school is right for you and show them you’re right for it Month-by-month application checklist for high school seniors. Our guest is: Dr. Aviva Legat...

In Part II of our discussion with Ben Nelson, he shares information on the outcomes for the first Minerva graduates and how Minerva has diversified its business model with new partners for its platform and an extension to high school. He also provides his perspective on the changes likely to unfold in higher education over the coming decade and lessons for other entrepreneurs contemplating the lau...

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So we are reaching across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. G...

In the first of two parts, we meet Ben Nelson, the charismatic founder of the Minerva Project and Minerva University. Ben shares the fascinating story of how he was able to convince one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley to back him as a young entrepreneur with no background in education to take on the Ivy League and create the world’s most selective university. Minerva attract...

Saving the World at Business School (Part 2) is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Andy Hoffman, Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability. This extensive conversation starts with inspiring insights into how Andy Hoffman became interested in environmental issues whe...

Saving the World at Business School (Part 1) is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Andy Hoffman, Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability. This extensive conversation starts with inspiring insights into how Andy Hoffman became interested in environmental issues whe...

The third episode in our series on the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) of Applied Life Sciences, the 7th of the Claremont Colleges founded in 1998, features a discussion with Sheldon “Shelly” Schuster, KGI’s 2nd President, and Jim Sterling, a founding faculty member who has held many leadership roles at KGI, including PhD Program Director. They describe the dramatic evolution and growth of the Insti...

Gordon Gee was named the Top University President in the U.S. by Time Magazine, and is the only higher education leader to have been a president 7 times, including return stints at both The Ohio State University and WVU. He shares lessons and insights from his more than 4 decades of experience as a university president, including how he has boiled down all the information he needs to run WVU onto...

Every year millions of high school seniors in China take the gaokao, China’s standardized college entrance exam. Students, parents, and head teachers all devote years, sweat, and tears to this consequential and chancy exam — even though the ideal of the gaokao as a fair, objective, and scientific measure of individual merit is known to be something of a myth. Why examinees and their families conti...

Scott Miller, who has been recognized as one of the most innovative and influential college presidents in the U.S., shares insights from his over 3 decades of experience leading four private, independent colleges: Lincoln Memorial University, Wesley College, Bethany College, and Virginia Wesleyan University. Scott, who became the youngest college president in the U.S. when he took the helm at Linc...

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So, we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us your suggestion on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. In this episode you’ll hear:...

This is the last episode of a four-part series featuring the winners and honorable mentions of the 2021 Book Awards for the Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS). This episode focuses on the winner of the award in Humanities and Cultural Studies in Media, Performance, and Visual Studies: Kandice Chuh’s The Difference Aesthetics Makes: On the Humanities “After Man.” This insightful and criti...

Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students. While we know this path usually entails financial sacrifices and hard work, very little attention has been paid to the deep personal compromises such students have to make as they enter worlds vastly different from their own. Measuring the...

Sean Creighton, the President of New American Colleges & Universities, discusses the origins and evolution of this Association that serves 24 institutions that each combine an undergraduate liberal arts core with a range of professional programs. He describes the distinctive role that NACU members play within the US higher ed system and the different services that the Association provides for its...

Listen to this interview of Peter Kaufman, Program Manager in Strategic Initiatives and Resource Development at MIT Open Learning and author of The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge (Seven Stories Press, 2021). We talk about us. All of us. Peter Kaufman : "Well, I'd say this about how to bring about the change my book calls for. Take a broad look at our knowledge institutions. Defi...

David Chard, the President of Wheelock College in Boston, MA, discusses the process of merging Wheelock successfully into Boston University to become the BU Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. His book, When Colleges Close: Leading in a Time of Crisis (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), written with Wheelock’s VPAA Mary Churchill, provides the most detailed guide available on...

For a change of pace this week, David Finegold is the interviewee, speaking with Brad Johnson, the host of the Plexuss podcast, about a range of current issues in higher education. Plexuss is an educational technology company that helps high school students identify the best college for them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler05@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life...

What should the relationship between school and society be? Obstinate Education: Reconnecting School and Society (Brill, 2019) argues that education is not just there to give individuals, groups and societies what they want from it, but that education has a duty to resist. Education needs to be obstinate, not for the sake of being difficult, but in order to make sure that it can contribute to eman...