In recent years the need for change in higher education has become a recurrent refrain. Institutions need to change, faculty need to change, curricula need to change – and recognition of this is widely shared within and outside of the academy. The world and our students are changing at a rapid pace. Higher education, to…
Month: June 2011
Colossus – Building the Hoover Dam
Good popular history combines the rigor of academic historical scholarship with accessible, lively prose. Good popular history is about telling a story with heroes, villains, drama and resolution. Popular historians can situate their subjects within broader historical questions. Most importantly, good popular history takes a complicated story and renders it in human scale. Popular history…
Commencing a Rethink
Late spring the season higher education celebrates and sends forth its graduates, usually with pomp, circumstance and oration. The commencement address, often given by an honorary degree recipient and friend of the institution, figures prominently in this ritual. It has long been a fixture of academia, with commencement addresses taking place in the United States…