Sherman Criner, a senior at Duke University and the Summer 2025 intern at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, recently joined The Mark Reardon Show to discuss his piece, Duke is Abandoning American History. Criner’s article had a wide reach and was highlighted by RealClearEducation in its daily brief. In the piece, he argues that by 2025 Duke’s history department has shifted heavily toward courses centered on race, gender, and social justice, with more than half of its American history offerings falling into these categories. Meanwhile, traditional areas such as political, constitutional, diplomatic, and military history have been largely sidelined, leaving students with fewer opportunities to study the broader sweep of America’s past.
On The Mark Reardon Show, Criner also spoke about his academic studies and career plans, including preparing for the LSAT and pursuing law school. He explained that he wrote his critique of Duke’s history department for two main reasons. First, he emphasized that he maintains a good relationship with the faculty and did not intend the piece as a personal attack, noting that those who know him would understand his concerns as genuine rather than hostile. Second, he voiced frustration that traditional courses—such as those on the American founding, which directly connect to his legal interests—are absent from Duke’s offerings, a stark contrast to the curriculum his family members encountered when they studied history in college. If you’d like to hear more from Criner, you can tune in to his full interview at this LINK.