From Review 31, the critic as the intervening figure: Simon Grimble reviews Conflict in the Academy: A Study in the Sociology of Intellectuals by Marcus Morgan and Patrick Baert. Campuses cautiously train freshmen against subtle insults. Fancy dorms aren’t the main reason tuition is skyrocketing: By far the single biggest driver of rising tuitions for public colleges has been declining state funding for higher education. Laura McKenna on the ever-tightening job market for Ph.D.s. Noah Berlatsky on why most academics will always be bad writers: No one should be surprised if much scholarly writing continues to be mediocre and confused. Diana Moskovitz on why Title IX has failed everyone on campus rape. The untold story of Middle America’s regional universities: Alan Ruby sings the praises of the less-heralded face of US higher education. Jim Sleeper on political correctness and its real enemies.
What is a “serious academic”? Social-media critique provokes a backlash. Mark Oppenheimer on graduate students, the laborers of academia. Dancing with professors: Patricia Nelson Limerick on the trouble with academic prose. Danielle Allen on how tuition is now a useless concept in higher education. Colleges are defining “microaggressions” really broadly. Are PhD students irrational? We’re still wedded to the irrationality narrative we’ve unfoundedly ascribed to humanities PhDs. Christopher Schaberg is against careerism, for college. Scott McLemee reviews a scholarly article that examines how small but significant tweaks to an academic paper’s title can make it more likely to win attention. David Sarasohn on the Republican war on public universities. Should the PhD be saved? Stephen Milder reviews The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It by Leonard Cassuto.
Now that everybody knows how rubbish it is to be an adjunct, what happens next to the “professor” as a cultural figure? The artist, teacher, writer, and editor Dushko Petrovich is recalibrating our understanding of the adjunct professor into something closer to art. What’s the point of the PhD thesis? Doctoral courses are slowly being modernized — now the thesis and viva need to catch up. Aaron Hanlon on how to fix our toxic debate about political correctness on campus. Emma Pettit on how one professor will turn Wisconsin’s higher-ed philosophy into a seminar. Amid heightened interest, transgender studies weighs newfound influence. 2,000 spaces for 10,000 papers: Neil Sinhababu on why everything gets rejected and referees are exhausted. Why do so many people continue to pursue doctorates? Glenn C. Altschuler reviews Wisdom’s Workshop: The Rise of the Modern University by James Axtell.
From Times Higher Education, despite a long history of trailblazing female academics, Europe’s academy is making slow progress in promoting more women to senior roles. Why not a college degree in sports? The future of academic style: Kathleen Fitzpatrick on why citations still matter in the age of Google. Todd Gitlin writes an open letter to incoming students: Your guide to navigating the personal and political minefield of today’s hypersensitive college life.
