The Wisest of Counselors: The Western Canon and Those Who Would Defend It
I attended an estate sale for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and a wave of unreality washed over me. It was bizarre to rummage the home of…
Graphic Novels Are Trending in English Departments, and That’s a Problem
Many English departments are now beginning to offer courses on graphic novels, which integrate text and visual imagery. Graphic novels are increasingly studied alongside traditional literature, in some cases supplanting…
Court Ruling in the McAdams Case: A Body Blow to Free Speech and Tenure
The Martin Center has been covering the Kafkaesque case of Marquette University professor John McAdams since it first broke several years ago. Professor Howard Kainz first wrote about it in…
Tribal Politics Is Turning Us Against Each Other—and Science
If you’ve spent much time on a college campus you’ve probably heard the claim that conservatives are anti-science. If you’re a liberal who doesn’t interact with many conservatives, you might…
Why the Woman Appointed to a Top Education Department Post Is Under Fire
During Barack Obama’s administration, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights was staffed with “progressives” who were intent on pushing federal policy in ways that advanced their visions of what…
Free Speech Is More Threatened Than Ever and We Must Respond
Many readers probably have read about the New Wave of free speech suppression that has swept across campuses in the last several years. It comes on the heels of the…
Secretary DeVos Could End Title IX Overreach on Campus
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has signaled that she might be a force for good when it comes to scaling back Obama-era Title IX expansion. This would be a…
Attaching Strings to “Free” College Education Makes No Sense
Recently, several states have adopted policies that ostensibly make college education free to their residents, but with strings attached to this benefit. The most famous program is undoubtedly New York’s.…
NC Joins Growing List of States Seeking to Protect Campus Free Speech
Student intolerance and opposition to free speech have been gaining momentum. What began as isolated incidents at the University of Missouri and Yale University in fall 2015 quickly spread to…
Microaggressions Put Under the Scholarly Microscope
The term “microaggression” was coined in 1970 by Harvard professor Chester Pierce, who declared that “Every Black must recognize the offensive mechanisms used by the collective White society, usually by…