culture war

Amid Anti-Woke Panic, Interdisciplinary Programs Inherently Vulnerable

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

Because standards of academic freedom like those of the AAUP tie that freedom to expertise within recognized professional communities of scholars, those doing interdisciplinary work and working in programs like ethnic studies have less institutional protection against charges that they are engaged in politics rather than scholarship. 

Americans Can and Must Fight Back Against Anti-Woke Authoritarians

by Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Signs are emerging that Americans won't be persuaded by moral panics to surrender the freedom to learn. What can this counteroffensive build on? 

1776 vs. 1619: Hillsdale College Enters the History Wars

by Adam Hochshild

If conservatives are against "woke" history education, what, exactly, are they for? There's much to be learned from the curriculum created by the Michigan christian college, which presents a jarring contrast with the themes presented in the new Hulu documentary series based on Nikole Hannah-Jones's 1619 Project. 

Right-Wing School Culture Warriors Lost the Last Election Cycle

Although midterm elections aren't always a reliable indicator, educators believe that the appeal of "parents' rights" doesn't extend to efforts to undermine public schools. 

"Woke" Indoctrination of Students is a Myth

by Glenn C. Altschuler and David Wippman

There is virtually no evidence that liberal professors are successfully indoctrinating students, or that they're even trying. But the myth is behind a host of measures that threaten higher education. 

If Universities are a Culture War Battleground, it's Time for University Workers to Fight Together

by Jeff Kolnick

"If higher education loses out in the culture wars, so too will American democracy. Our only hope is to enter the fray with our own culture in mind, and to insist on respect. If we stay on the sideline, we will lose."

Laws Like Florida Will Put Burden of Purposeful Ignorance on University Teachers

by Donald Earl Collins

University faculty who don't feel affected by the fight to take issues of race, gender and sexuality out of the K-12 curriculum need to be prepared for students who have been trained to think of ignorance as praiseworthy, part of a campaign to make it too exhausting for teachers to bother fighting that ignorance. 

DeSantis's War on "Woke" Evokes Darkest Parts of Florida's History

by Carol Anderson

Calling DeSantis's agenda a "culture war" obscures the fact that is in fact a war against the marginalized, an effort to narrow the definition of who counts as a Floridian and whom the state will serve and protect, with the right to vote at the center. 

Culture Warrior Chris Rufo is DeSantis's Most Important Ally

The closeness of the Florida governor's alliance with the fomer documentarian turned anti-CRT crusader shows DeSantis's commitment to claiming a position on the right of the culture wars. Who is setting the agenda? 

Does Gov. Whitmer Have a Formula for a Democratic Response to GOP Culture War?

In Michigan, the Democratic majority is repealing "right to work" laws and protecting abortion rights and LBGTQ antidsicrimination by law. Historians Erik Loomis and Michael Kazin argue that it's not a historical anomaly for the party to push for inclusion on multiple fronts. 

Florida Professor: I was Fired for Teaching about Racism

Although Palm Beach Atlantic University is a private and Christian institution, English instructor Sam Joeckel says that a parent's complaint to the administration that led to his firing goes hand in hand with the efforts of Ron DeSantis to attack higher education in Florida to advance his "anti-woke" crusade. 

Moral Panics Around the Humanities Reflect Long-Developing Paradigm Shift

by Steven Mintz

The ferocity of attacks on the humanities and academic research as "indoctrination" reflect the recent integration of ideas with long histories in academia into highly visible protest movements. Can humanists connect newer thinking to the established concerns of the humanities for understanding justice or the good life? 

Vincent Lloyd: What's Gone Wrong with Antiracist Politics

The Villanova professor explains the incidents that led him to ask whether a center-right critique of antiracist rhetoric and discursive rules has some justification, and how a broader coalition against domination can be rescued from some censorious excesses.

The Specter of Woke Corporate Communism Haunts the Republican Mind

by Steve Fraser

How do you run a politically useful Cold War without any actual Communism? Just declare that the organs of global capitalism are, in fact, red—borrowing some anti-Semitic tropes along the way. 

600 African American Studies Faculty Sign Open Letter in Defense of AP African American Studies

"We categorically reject DeSantis’s autocratic claim to knowing what college-level material should be available in an AP African American Studies course. There is no precedent, of which we are aware, for him or the Florida Department of Education to claim expertise on any other subject matter for AP course adoption."

Organization of American Historians Statement on AP African American Studies

"The OAH further rejects the characterization of these scholars and their scholarship as examples of “woke indoctrination,” and instead recognize them as central to the interdisciplinary research and teaching of African American history and culture, as well as American history more broadly."

Kids Could Teach Republican Pols a Lesson About Handling the Harsh Truth

by Margaret McMullan

"Decades after she first walked into Little Rock Central High, Elizabeth Eckford said, 'True reconciliation can occur only when we honestly acknowledge our painful, but shared past'."

Florida's Vague Content Laws are Being Used to Intimidate Librarians

The DeSantis administration has declined to issue clarification of the requirements of the "Don't Say Gay" and "Stop Woke" laws, which leaves school librarians fearful of potential prosecution if they leave books on their shelves. 

Ilya Shapiro and Chris Rufo Urge State Legislators to Force Colleges to Change

by Ilya Shapiro and Christopher Rufo

Two prominent critics of "wokeness" and "critical race theory" in higher education lay out their suggestions for how state legislators can enact the changes they want to see in public colleges and universities—outside of changes to the curriculum. 

Hillsdale College's New Strategy in the School Wars Merges Curriculum and Privatization through "Choice"

by Megan Threlkeld

During the Progressive era, as today, American education reformers examined the connection between schooling and the cultural and political divisions affecting the nation. Today's conservative agenda, however, openly rejects the idea of public schools as a force for unity and democratic culture.