Who knows best? And who do we trust to know best? In the years after World War II, America’s large research universities increasingly put themselves forward as the nation’s administrative experts, taking leadership roles in addressing big, complicated questions of economics and society. How higher education came to think of itself as the nation’s manager…
Category: Reviews
Reviews of books, articles, and the like
Thought Experiment: Climate Justice Universities
Jennie C. Stephens is a scientist, academic, feminist and provocative thinker. With a PhD from Caltech in Environmental Science and Engineering, along with decades of faculty appointments, Stephens knows about energy systems and the move from old to new technologies. The focus of her latest book, Climate Justice and the University: Shaping a Hopeful Future…
Walking The Walk Through Complexity
Amid the veritable sea of leadership advice, finding a guide that is practical, digestible, reasonable, and makes sense can be quite the task. There are so many ways that we can learn to be more effective, more humble, more strategic, more outcomes driven, accountable and flexible – the aspirational list is endless. Nonetheless, it is…
Politics, State Higher Education Policy, and Deinstitutionalization
Barrett J. Taylor, a professor of education at the University of North Texas and a frequent contributor to the Chronicle of Higher Education, is a scholar interested in the intersection of politics and higher education policy. His 2022 book, Wrecked: Deinstitutionalization and Partial Defenses in State Higher Education Policy, looks at attacks on higher education…
Don’t Look At That Squirrel – Your Productivity Depends Upon It!
We live in distracted times. Your attention is being tracked, monetized, tricked and transformed into power. One may “give” or “pay” attention, but rarely do we save or marshal it. We tend to agree, though, that when we lose attention, things take a turn for the worse. Cal Newport, Georgetown University professor and entrepreneur, credits…
Unpacking Rural Resentment
Understand Wisconsin politics and understanding American politics becomes possible. The “badger state” is a fascinating mix of people, cultures and economies, from industrial to rural. Democrats, Republicans (the party was started in Wisconsin), progressives, socialists and many other groups from across the political spectrum have won office in Wisconsin. From 2011 to 2019, Scott Walker…
Seeing Each Other
Being human is a social activity. Connections between and among fellow humans are how we make meaning, understanding ourselves, our actions and our world. Interacting with each other keeps us healthy, guides us to happiness, and gives us the tools to deal with the many challenges that life brings. Exploring that theme in the workplace…